Trojans in two different places at once
The USC track and field team consists of more than 100 athletes. And those athletes are of different skill level and have varying training regiments, splitting the team to different locations. Such was the case last week and will be again this week.
Some of the team will be at a meet in Northridge, two women will be in Fayetteville, Ark., competing for the national titles in their respective events, and the rest of the team will stay to train at USC.
USC Director of Track and Field Ron Allice said that just like last week, all of the throwers, some hurdlers and some jumpers would be at the Northridge Relays on Friday and Saturday.
The throwers for the Trojans will try to build on their success from last week at the Ben Brown Invitational in Fullerton.
"Our hammer throwers had a very successful day," Allice said. "Both [junior Brian] Wilhelm and [freshman Trey] Henderson had really good marks. I thought they competed really well."
Wilhelm finished third in the invitational with a mark of 196 feet and 1 inch and Henderson finished fourth with a throw of 195-2. Both were NCAA Regional qualifying marks and personal season bests, with Wilhelm's being a personal record as well. Junior Mike Curiel finished fifth with a personal best 185-11, which as just short of the qualifying.
On the women's side of the hammer competition junior Eva Orban will look to continue her dominance in Northridge. She won last week's event with an NCAA Regional qualifying mark of 226-6, which was just two inches off her school record set two years ago. She won the NCAA West Regional title and placed third in the NCAA Championships a year ago.
Over 1,500 miles away, senior Carol Rodriguez and sophomore Nia Ali will be at the NCAA Indoor Championships on the campus of the University of Arkansas. Both athletes were there last weekend at the Last Chance Meet to qualify for the championships.
Rodriguez qualified for the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.60 seconds, the 12th fastest time out of 16, and Ali qualified for the 60m hurdles with 13th fastest time (8.24) out of 16.
"They are down the list in terms of time wise, but they just got to compete," Allice said. "Anything can happen."
The rest of the team will be staying put this weekend to train.
"Next week we have our big invitational [Trojan Invitation on March 22] here so we are training through," Allice said. "We are training through because all of this is a mere stepping stone to where we want to be in May and June."
One of the keys for training, besides getting better, is getting healthy. One athlete that will not be in action this week or next week at the Trojan Invitation is freshman Bryshon
Nellum, who suffered a hamstring injury two weeks ago.
"He is getting better, but he's still not able to run yet," Allice said.
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