Track & Field shows out at West Preliminary Rounds


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A USC athlete is running towards the camera with a fight on symbol raised with two UCLA players next to her
Even with a virus landing many Trojans in the hospital, USC still came out and had multiple berths to the NCAA Championships. (Louis Chen | Daily Trojan)

Sixteen Trojans and four relays qualified for the NCAA National Championships during the West Preliminary Rounds this past weekend.

The squads performed well in the West Preliminary Rounds, including a number of athletes setting new personal bests and some even qualifying during the first day of preliminaries.

“We went in and we felt very confident that these young athletes would do well,” Head Coach Quincy Watts said. “I’m very excited with how they performed.” 

The Trojans had four relay berths and 16 athletes who qualified for the NCAA National Championships. Four relays also qualified for the quarterfinals. 

Before the preliminary rounds began, the team had some unforeseen circumstances that threw it for a whirl.

“Several of our athletes who were key came down with … some type of virus … and they were in the hospital throughout the week,” Watts said. “But when it came time to compete on meet day, they showed a lot of resilience, and they advanced, and I’m very proud of them.”

Watts said Director of Operations Russ Romano had to get up at 2 a.m. to get the athletes to the hospital once they started feeling sick. Romano was key to ensuring those who could play were ready to go for their events.

“We talked about this in the team meeting the night before the competition,” Watts said. “We talked about adversity; we talked about ‘expect the unexpected.’ We get all these things that are going to come in and try to be distractions.”

Looking forward to the NCAA National Championships starting early June, Watts said the teams are still confident despite the setbacks, especially after fighting through it in the preliminary rounds to get to this point.

“My relay team, we’re going to have to clean up some things with our stick passing,” Watts said. “On the women’s side and then, with our relays, both relays should have a chance.” 

Watts said while the younger athletes on the team may have jitters when the bright lights come on, he wants to make them believe this is nothing that they haven’t done before.

“It’s a mix of veterans and a mix of freshmen, we tried to tell them that it’s the same track meet,” Watts said. “We’re racing against the same people that we compete against well all year.”

The NCAA National Championships begin June 7 and run until June 10 in Austin, Texas at Mike A. Myers Stadium.