Written by Sarah Bergstrom, USC blog contributor
The USC Track & Field program just keeps getting faster and faster. With eight stellar additions announced in the two weeks since National Signing Day, both the Trojan men and women are poised to be contending for the Pac-12 Title in 2016.
Click here for more on USC's talented recruiting class.
Leading the way for the Class of 2016 is 200m and 400m runner Michael Norman (pictured), the California state record holder in both events with times of 20.3 (+0.7) and 45.19, respectively. The 2015 Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year led Vista Murrieta High School to the 2015 state title by clinching both events and then finished second at the USATF Junior Championships in the 200m in 20.24. Joining Norman will be T.J. Brock, the current CIF 100m champion with a PR of 10.34 (+1.8). He finished second to Norman in the 200m dash at the CIF state meet with a time of 21.16 and holds a wind-aided PR of 20.78 (+2.3w) in the event.
The Women of Troy added six talented athletes to their already impressive team which finished seventh at the NCAA Championships last season, including two of the nation's top hurdlers. Anna Cockrell, the 2015 North Carolina Gatorade Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year won the state 3A title in the 100m with a PR of 11.93, the 100m HH with a time of 13.53 and the 300m IH with a PR of 41.31. She also won the 400m IH with the second-fastest high school time in the country of 56.67 at the USATF Junior Championships. Her standing PR in the 100m HH, a mark of 13.21, was third among high schoolers trailing fellow Trojan recruit Mecca McGlaston, whose mark was 13.18. McGlaston's time was the World Junior leader, the third-fastest in state history and the sixth-fastest ever by a high school hurdler.
Courtney Corrin, the 2015 CIF long jump champion, will also be joining the Trojan Family. She won the USATF Junior Championships with a wind-aided mark of 21-6.25/6.56m and earned a silver medal at the Pan Am Junior Championships with a jump of 20-1.50. Fellow CIF champion, Zaria Francis, who owns the 100m and 200m title, will be donning Cardinal & Gold as well. Francis has a legal 100m PR of 11.26, ranking fourth among high schoolers, and a 23.09 PR in the 200m. Twins, Kayla and Kyla Richardson complete the class as two talented 100m and 200m sprinters from Walnut, California. Kayla has wind-aided PRs of 11.65 in the 100m and 23.45 in the 200m.
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