Men’s and women’s teams compete in wild weekend

A busy lineup of events is finally over for the USC men’s and women’s track and field teams.

Both squads traveled to three separate meets this Easter weekend, competing at a triple-meet at Brigham Young University and two meets at Stanford and Cal State Los Angeles.

The track and field team did not compete at full-strength at the meets, although more athletes competed at the BYU Triple Meet with hosts BYU and Boise State.

The Trojans entered the weekend ranked eighth in the nation, while the Women of Troy entered ranked fourth.

The track and field team did not send many athletes to Stanford or CSULA, opting instead to focus its competitive strength at the BYU-Boise State-USC Triple Meet.

As a result, only a handful of athletes competed at CSULA’s Tiny Lister Classic on Friday and Saturday, joined by a few more competing at the Stanford Relays.

Senior Joey Hughes captured the sole win for the USC Trojans at the Tiny Lister Classic, posting a time of 45.99 seconds to win the men’s 400-meter dash — a   season-record for the senior.

USC did not secure any wins at the Stanford Relays on Friday.

The teams found success at BYU’s Tri-Meet, and USC track and field came out of the meet with several wins at the single day event Saturday.

Junior Reggie Wyatt capped a win for the Trojans in the men’s 800-meter, posting a final time of 1:51.92.

Senior James Leckie also placed in the men’s 800-meter, finishing close behind Wyatt with a time of 1:53.13 to clinch second.

Freshman Allen Williams placed second in both men’s 110-meter hurdles as well as men’s triple jump, posting a time of 14.79 and a mark of 14.35m. Other Trojans that placed in Saturday’s tri-meet included junior Eric Stein, who placed third in men’s hammer throw, and senior Duane Walker placed third in men’s 400-meter hurdles.

Senior Aareon Payne won two separate events for the Women of Troy, finishing first in both women’s 100-meter dash and women’s 200-meter dash, posting times of 11.60 seconds and 23.69, respectively.

Sophomore Loudia Laarman also placed in the same events, finishing in close second in the women’s 100-meter with a time of 11.73, and finishing in third in the women’s 200-meter with a time of 24.55.

Other Women of Troy who placed first in track events included senior Dalilah Muhammad (women’s 400-meter hurdles), sophomore Lauren Blackburn (women’s 100-meter hurdles) and freshman Akawkaw Ndipagbor (women’s 400-meter). Senior Marissa Minderler finished first in both women’s shot put and women’s hammer throw.

Freshman Alexandra Collatz won the women’s discus throw, breaking a personal record in the process.

Despite recording several wins against two other nationally ranked teams at BYU’s tri-meet, USC finished the meet last in total points.

This score, however, is not representative of the team’s strength and is simply a measure of how many individuals from a team won (or placed) in events.

The USC track and field team competes next at the Mount San Antonio College Relays on April 19.