USC Athletics

Redshirt junior Ky Westbrook is preparing for her third season as sprinter for the USC track and field program.  She is a three-time outdoor All-American, last year placing eighth in the 100m dash finals. She ranks tied for sixth on USC's all-time 100m dash list and has run on three of USC's top 10 4x100m relays.  Also as a freshman, she placed second in the 60m dash at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships.  We caught up with the talented Trojan as she prepares for the 2018 indoor and outdoor seasons.

Q: What made you choose USC?

KW: USC had the most appeal because it has so much balance: it has the academics, it has the athletics, and it has the support that I thought would be beneficial to me. A lot of the other schools had one of three things, but none of them had all three. I think that's what makes USC so unique. Even after I came here, I continued to feel like it was a good fit for me. I continue to feel like this is a top athletic school, this is a top academic school, and I still continue to feel like we receive support in ways that a lot of student athletes don't get support.

Q:  How do you find balance with student life and academics with track and field?

KW: It's not easy, but I think we just have to prioritize our time. You don't really get a lot of extra time to do whatever you want to do because you have to spend extra hours training and recovering. Support is so huge: both my team and my coaching staff are super helpful. It just comes down to the fact that the people at this school are so amazing.

Q:  What got you in to sprinting?

KW: My parents were the type to get me into every sport—from ice skating to basketball. When I was playing soccer, the other parents wouldn't like how I would keep the ball and beat all the other kids. After that, they put me into track, where I did very well and kept progressing at track. It stuck and I had a passion for it.

Q:  Were you always a short-distance sprinter?

KW: I was always a short distance sprinter. I threw a little in high school because I tried to do the heptathlon, but that's it.

Q:  Was there a time when you knew you could go to school for track?

KW: At first, I had this idea of it being easy to get into school for athletics, but I did the math in my sophomore year of high school and realized that there's a lot of athletes in track and not a lot of scholarships. It was my junior year of high school when I had my best year, but I knew that it was hard to fight for that spot on the team.

Q:  Do you have any pre-race rituals?

KW: I don't have any pre-race rituals at the moment. I used to put a sticky note on my ceiling before I went to bed of the time that I wanted to reach the next day.

Q: What are your goals for this upcoming year?

KW: I want to improve on my times because my best times are from freshman year.

Q:  What are your post-college plans?

KW: I want to continue with track and then I would like to go into the entertainment industry and do animation and film.