AZUSA, Calif. – By virtue of his second-place finished in the U.S. junior decathlon championship this past weekend in Carson, Calif., Azusa Pacific sophomore-to-be David Pichler was named to the U.S. team that will compete Junior Pan American Games in Windsor, Ontario, Canada next month.

Meanwhile, former Cougar Bryan Clay punched his ticket for the World Track & Field Championships in Helsinki, Finland, by winning his second straight U.S. decathlon championship. Clay, who won the silver medal in Athens last summer, now sets his sights on rival Roman Sebrle, the Czech Republic gold medalist who will also be in Helsinki in August for the World Championships.

Pichler scored a personal-best 6,966 points in the 10-event decathlon, which included 5 event personal bests. In fact, the 6-foot-2, 200-pounder out of Yelm, Wash., PRd in the first 4 events of the decathlon and went on to tally 3,649 points for his best ever first-day score. He then put together a solid second day to finish just 76 points off the winner, Michael Bingham, a freshman out of Wake Forest University.

Pichler posted personal records in the 100 (11.12), long jump (21’ 11”), shot put (43’ 1”) and high jump (5’ 10) the first day and came back with a PR in the in the discus (138’ 6”) the second day.

With the second place showing, Pichler secures of 1 of 3 available berths onto the U.S. Junior Team and will continue his season at the Junior Pan American Games, July 28-31 at the University of Windsor.

As expected Clay easily captured the U.S. decathlon title earlier in the meet with a sound effort of 8,506 points, more than 500 points ahead of second-place Paul Terek. Clay, who is still recovering from a broken rib suffered in late May, nonetheless led the competition from wire-to-wire grabbing the early lead with a 10.70 100 meters. He sealed his victory early in the second day of competition with a decathlon world-record throw of 183’ 4” in the discus.

Clay joins Dave Johnson as the only Cougars ever to win back-to-back U.S. championships in track & field. He’ll now have more than 5 weeks to train and strengthen his rib for the World Championships in Helsinki, Aug. 9-10.

In other results from the U.S. Championship Meet, former Cougar Jesse Roberge finished 11th in the men’s shot put (64’ 2½”) while Mary Sauer was seventh in the pole vault (13’ 9¼”).

Complete Results, 2005 U.S. Track & Field Championships