Track and field takes home the hardware at Cougar Classic

USC fielded a skeleton crew at the Cougar Classic last Friday, but seemingly secured enough hardware for two or three full rosters in the season’s first indoor meet.

A good summary of the day might’ve been the men’s 4x400m.

Freshmen Justin Braun and William Jones set their blocks in lanes two and five respectively, representing Trojan “A” and “B” squads; Washington State and Idaho took their marks between USC in three and four — call it a Trojan sandwich.

The gun. A blink. And Braun had already made up the stagger on Washington State, hunting down Idaho too by the second turn on the 200m track. Washington State’s runner hobbled off, presumably on account of injury.

Still, it wasn’t yet obvious that it’d be smooth sailing for the Trojans when Idaho beat Jones to the break. But Jones, the Kansas high school 400m record holder, put any doubts to bed by coming back at the 250m mark with his signature limbs-and-hair-flailing stride.

Braun, handing off to senior Nicholas Ramey, split something akin to a 46-low. Jones followed a second later with his handoff to junior Ashton Allen, the two veterans putting more distance on Idaho but leaving the gap between Trojan squads relatively untouched — both running something in the 46 second neighborhood, leaving team “B” ahead of “A.”

The relay’s most gallant runner might’ve been freshman Tamaal Myers, who ran down sophomore Baylor transfer Johnny Brackins Jr. in another roughly 46 second split that effectively closed the gap between Trojan teams.

Idaho didn’t field a fourth leg, leaving graduate Cincinnati transfer Chris Borzor running on the outside shoulder of freshman Max Thomas in a USC-USC deadlock. Borzor managed to eke out a win for team “A” over his freshman counterpart on the final straightaway; the “A” squad ran a 3:10.16, and “B” a 3:10.39.

It was a good day to be a Trojan. USC, one of seven schools competing in the meet, took first place in 10 of the 25 events. USC’s four 4x400m teams — “A” and “B” for both men and women — all broke the previous venue records.

Junior Summer Mosley’s 19.43m weight throw broke her own previous school record. Senior Tade Ojora won the men’s 60m hurdles in a 7.68 second personal best, moving him to second on USC’s all-time performance list for that event.

USC swept the first four places in the men’s 400m, granted the only competition was two Montana State runners. Jones, the freshman, finished in second place with a 47.50 that put him behind Allen — but ahead of two of his upperclassman counterparts.

Thomas, also a freshman, came second only to Oregon sophomore Micah Williams in the 60m finals. Williams, who ran on Team USA’s 4x100m relay team in the Tokyo Olympics, was last year’s NCAA indoor 60m champion.

Other standout performances were junior Jan’Taijah Jones’ first-place 53.63 400m, followed by fellow junior Kimberly Harris in second with a 53.85. 

And it wasn’t just the power events: The women’s distance squad got a confidence boost of its own, showing its strength over middle distance after a lukewarm cross country season. 

Sophomore Gigi Maccagnini won the mile, looking composed throughout her 4:56.09; freshman Ashlee Gallegos followed in second place with a 5:06.45. Senior Janiah Brown, running in a three-person race, took first in the 800m with a 2:12.67 — beating out the second-place runner by some 13 seconds, a huge margin in a half-mile contest.

The Trojans compete next Saturday at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Collegiate Invitational in Albuquerque.