By ANNIE FOWLER, CUJ Special Contributor
MISSION — Landen Picard is a bit of a daredevil.
When he’s not leaping over a high jump bar or a hurdle, he’s flying through the air on his motocross bike.
“I have done everything from bull riding to basketball,” said Picard, a 2024 graduate of Nixyáawii Community School. “I’ve ridden horses and I do track. Of everything, motocross is the most physically demanding thing I have done.”
It’s his success in track that earned him a shot at college athletics at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.
“Before I did well in track, I was going to be a journeyman electrician,” Picard said, “but my coach said I could go to college. When they (EOU coaches) started talking to me, the idea of doing it a couple more years sounded good. It kind of fanned the flames.”
As long as Picard keeps himself in one piece, EOU track and field coach Ben Welch doesn’t have a problem and said he encourages his athletes to have fun, even if it’s a little dangerous.
“They are nuts,” Welch said of some of his athletes. “As long as they don’t break anything, it’s fine.”
Picard was barely a blip on the high school track radar his junior year – his first year of track. He qualified for state in the high jump, where he placed seventh with a height of 5 feet, 8 inches. His personal best that year was 6 feet.
His senior year, he put in the work, limiting his events to high jump, the 110 hurdles and the 4×400 relay.
He worked with Nixyáawii assistant track coach and former college high jumper Micah Reading and it made a big difference.
Picard cleared a personal best 6-4 and won the 1A Special District 3 Championships on May 11, then went to state, where he won the 1A state title with a height of 6-2 3/4, clearing the height on his first attempt. He had the bar raised to his personal record of 6-4, but missed all three attempts.
“As soon as I knew I won state, I knew I wouldn’t be able to jump any higher,” he said. “My mind wasn’t in the right place.”
Picard and Jayden Churchwell from Yoncalla were the only two jumpers to get past 6-0 ½, and while Picard cleared his first jump at 6-1 ½, Churchwell needed a second attempt to get over the bar.
When the pair got to 6-2 ¾, Picard had no trouble with the height, while Churchwell failed on all three attempts to clear the bar.
The gold medal won by Picard in the high jump was the first-ever state track title for Nixyáawii.
“There’s lots of talent at Nixyáawii,” Picard said. “There are kids who don’t do track and they could dominate. Sun Schimmel has a ton of talent.”
Schimmel was on the Golden Eagles’ 4×400 relay team, along with Baron Moses and Sacas Wildbill, that was second at the SD3 meet and placed 10th at state with a season best 3:43.75.
“State was only the third time we had ever run the relay,” Picard said. “If we would have run it all year long, we would have been way better on the podium. We just got better as the season went along.”
Picard also won the 110 hurdles at the SD3 championships with a time of 16.25 seconds. He was fifth at state with a PR of 15.83.
“He’s a good athlete,” Welch said. “We are excited to see what he can do. He hasn’t been doing it very long. He has the ability to adapt to different environments and demands and that is promising. It comes down to adjusting to the college athletic and academic pressures. We have high hopes for him.”
Picard said he is ready for the challenge.
“I’m excited,” he said. “They have an awesome indoor facility. I can’t wait to tear that thing apart. I will do anything but distances.”
Welch plans to keep Picard within his comfort zone.
“It will be interesting to see how he develops,” Welch said. “He has not been tapped out. We have a guy right now that is knocking on the door of 7 feet (in the high jump), and he only did two years in high school. We are hoping it goes as well for Landen. He has a lot of room to improve. We know what he’s done in the hurdles, and he’s barely run them.”
Being an electrician is on the back burner for Picard, who said he would like to major in construction management. He is getting a taste of it this summer working for the Wenaha Group, a Native American-owned Construction Management & Consulting Firm.
“I help with pre-construction, and during construction to make sure everything is on track,” Picard said.
