Trojans prepare for tough weekend NorCal roadtrip


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Last weekend, the USC women’s swimming and diving team fell short in road contests against California and Stanford. A week later, the USC men’s team tries to topple the same two Northern California powerhouses.

The No. 8 Trojans (6-1) will take on No. 1 Cal (2-0) on Friday at 5 p.m. and No. 2 Stanford (4-0) on Saturday at 1 p.m.

While the Women of Troy faced disheartening losses at the hands of these top teams, USC coach Dave Salo noted that the men’s team took a lesson from those losses.

“We lost too many close battles last week, and we have made our men aware of that weakness so they don’t repeat the same mistake,” Salo said.

Salo certainly is not underestimating the power that these two teams bring to the table and he has emphasized effort in the days leading up to the team’s weekend slate.

“We will have our hands full this weekend, so our primary goal is to race hard and try to win the close races,” he said. “The Stanford meet meet might be a better matchup for us if we have a chance to win.”

Despite the fierce competition that both rival teams are expected to bring to the table, the men’s team remains hopeful that it will pull out a victory against at least one of these teams.

“We will focus the men on racing hard and try to take as many individual wins as we can against two of the best teams in the country,” Salo said.

Freshman Vlad Morozov, along with All-American swimmers sophomore Clement LeFert and junior Patrick White, will lead the Trojans this weekend.

Though these dual meets against the Golden Bears and the Cardinal are traditionally important to the team, the Trojans also have an eye to the future.

“We try to take dual meets not so big because we are thinking about the NCAAs and the Pac-10s,” Morozov said.