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USC's Women Place 2nd At NCAA T&F Championships; Annelus, Cockrell & 4x100m Win Titles
June 08, 2019 | Track & Field, Features
USC sets 3 school records on the final day
The USC women's team made a valiant comeback to place second at the 2019 NCAA Women's Outdoor Track & Field Championships, with Anna Cockrell winning the 400m hurdles, Angie Annelus the 200m dash and the 4x100m relay getting things started with a victory during the final day at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas today (June 8).  USC set three school records and scored a total of 57 points to finish second overall at the Championships. The 57 points are the most scored by USC at the Championships since also scoring 57 points in 2002, tied for USC's third-most points ever at the NCAA Championships.
USC has finished in the top three at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in each of the last three seasons, the only women's program to do so. USC has also finished in the top 10 in each of the last five seasons and scored a total of 215 points in that stretch, its most since scoring a school-record 268 points from 1998-2002. USC entered the day with no points on the board behind 38 different schools, but made it a great final day at the Championships. Angie Annelus scored 14.5 points and Anna Cockrell 14.25 points at the meet to finish as the fourth and fifth-highest scoring individuals respectively at the NCAA Women's Track and Field Championships.
"I'm excited about the outcome with the women's team," said USC Director of Track & Field Caryl Smith Gilbert. "We started out the season agreeing that the 2018 National Championships wasn't our 'best USC self,' so the goal was to be our best. I thought today we were our best. We performed up to our abilities, we ran personal bests and we made the finals. We were even going into the final event, but in track and field things happen, you win some and you lose some. I was disappointed and still can't figure out what happened with the baton (in the 4x400m relay), but it looked like Anna (Cockrell) may have gotten pushed or clipped from behind and tried to swing outside and it didn't work out. That is track and field. That is the ups and downs of it all. I'm still excited and proud of her because she had a lot of setbacks this year with injury and we changed her from seven steps to eight steps on the first hurdle and she accepted a lot of new challenges and ended up a national champion and PR'ing in the short hurdles. Angie Annelus is absolutely amazing. Before the 200m race her leg was a little tight so we planned a strategy to run that kind of a race, knowing you have a person who just ran 10.75 in the 100m final ahead of or behind you in your race. It was a phenomenal feat, the way she held her composure and executed the race. Chanel Brissett's 12.52 as a sophomore, hands down one of the greatest performances I've ever seen. TeeTee Terry PR'd as well, 10.98 in the 100m. When 10.98 is third place, that shows you the kind of talent we are facing in the NCAAs. Lanae-Tava Thomas left here with two PRs, one in the 100m and one in the 200m. The 4x100m relay did a great job. Kyra Constantine scored in the 400m for the first time since she has been at USC. There is nothing that I could say negatively about how we performed, just things happened."
"On the men's side, we have to do some more recruiting," added Smith Gilbert. "We have a young team and we have to fill the missing holes from Mike (Norman) and Rai (Benjamin). We had a rash of injuries this year. I was still proud of their performances. They are very young. Most of them came back from some sort of injury halfway through the season to do what they did. We made the decision not to run the relays because we knew we didn't have enough bodies to run the rounds. Sometimes your decisions pay off, sometimes they don't. Overall, I'm pretty happy with their performances. Next year we do not lose anyone on the women's side except Margaux Jones and Dior Hall or really on the men's side except Marquis Morris, so we look to really be a force to be reckoned with…Fight On!"
Angie Annelus (100m, 200m, 4x100m), Chanel Brissett (100m hurdles, 4x100m), Anna Cockrell (100m hurdles, 400m hurdles, 4x400m), Kyra Constantine (400m, 4x400m), Bailey Lear (4x400m), Kaelin Roberts (4x400m), TeeTee Terry (100m, 4x100m), Lanae-Tava Thomas (200m, 4x100m).
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USC has finished in the top three at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in each of the last three seasons, the only women's program to do so. USC has also finished in the top 10 in each of the last five seasons and scored a total of 215 points in that stretch, its most since scoring a school-record 268 points from 1998-2002. USC entered the day with no points on the board behind 38 different schools, but made it a great final day at the Championships. Angie Annelus scored 14.5 points and Anna Cockrell 14.25 points at the meet to finish as the fourth and fifth-highest scoring individuals respectively at the NCAA Women's Track and Field Championships.
"I'm excited about the outcome with the women's team," said USC Director of Track & Field Caryl Smith Gilbert. "We started out the season agreeing that the 2018 National Championships wasn't our 'best USC self,' so the goal was to be our best. I thought today we were our best. We performed up to our abilities, we ran personal bests and we made the finals. We were even going into the final event, but in track and field things happen, you win some and you lose some. I was disappointed and still can't figure out what happened with the baton (in the 4x400m relay), but it looked like Anna (Cockrell) may have gotten pushed or clipped from behind and tried to swing outside and it didn't work out. That is track and field. That is the ups and downs of it all. I'm still excited and proud of her because she had a lot of setbacks this year with injury and we changed her from seven steps to eight steps on the first hurdle and she accepted a lot of new challenges and ended up a national champion and PR'ing in the short hurdles. Angie Annelus is absolutely amazing. Before the 200m race her leg was a little tight so we planned a strategy to run that kind of a race, knowing you have a person who just ran 10.75 in the 100m final ahead of or behind you in your race. It was a phenomenal feat, the way she held her composure and executed the race. Chanel Brissett's 12.52 as a sophomore, hands down one of the greatest performances I've ever seen. TeeTee Terry PR'd as well, 10.98 in the 100m. When 10.98 is third place, that shows you the kind of talent we are facing in the NCAAs. Lanae-Tava Thomas left here with two PRs, one in the 100m and one in the 200m. The 4x100m relay did a great job. Kyra Constantine scored in the 400m for the first time since she has been at USC. There is nothing that I could say negatively about how we performed, just things happened."
"On the men's side, we have to do some more recruiting," added Smith Gilbert. "We have a young team and we have to fill the missing holes from Mike (Norman) and Rai (Benjamin). We had a rash of injuries this year. I was still proud of their performances. They are very young. Most of them came back from some sort of injury halfway through the season to do what they did. We made the decision not to run the relays because we knew we didn't have enough bodies to run the rounds. Sometimes your decisions pay off, sometimes they don't. Overall, I'm pretty happy with their performances. Next year we do not lose anyone on the women's side except Margaux Jones and Dior Hall or really on the men's side except Marquis Morris, so we look to really be a force to be reckoned with…Fight On!"
- USC's women's 4x100m relay team showed the Trojans meant business by opening the day with a school and facility record-time of 42.21 to win the national title in the event. It was the fastest time ever registered in the NCAA 4x100m final, beating LSU's time of 42.25 set last season. USC's time is also the fastest time in the world this season. USC scored its first 10 points in the team competition. USC has now scored in the event in eight of the last nine seasons and it was the Trojans' second title in the event (2000). USC's previous best time in the 4x100m finals at the NCAA Championships was 42.90 in 2016.
- Chanel Brissett then had a PR of 12.52 (+0.6) to take second in the 100m hurdles final and move into second on USC's all-time list. She and the winner Janeek Brown of Arkansas (12.40) broke the previous facility record. Anna Cockrell, the person Brissett bumped to third on USC's all-time list, had a time of 12.80 (+0.6) to place fifth. Brissett and Cockrell teamed up to earn USC 12 points in the team competition. USC has now scored 18 times in the event at the NCAA Championships.
- TeeTee Terry followed with a PR of 10.98 (+1.6) to break her school record and finish third in the 100m dash finals. Angie Annelus had a time of 11.12 (+1.6) to finish in seventh in the final. Together they earned USC eight more team points. The winner Sha'Carri Richardson of LSU set the collegiate record with a time of 10.75. USC has now scored 24 times in the NCAA 100m finals and Terry's time of 10.98 is the fastest-ever by a Trojan. USC has had two runners score in the event in three of the last four seasons.
- Kyra Constantine had a time of 51.47 to finish sixth in the 400m dash finals. Her time was her second-best ever and just .06 second off her PR and earned USC three more points.
- After finishing as the NCAA runner-up for two seasons, Anna Cockrell captured the 400m hurdles title with a winning time of 55.23. It was her second-fastest time ever and the fastest time ever posted by a Trojan in the NCAA 400m hurdles final. She became USC's second champion in the event and joined Natasha Danvers (2000 champion) and Dalilah Muhammad as the only Trojans to score three times in the event at the NCAA Championships. It was the fifth consecutive season that USC has scored in the event at Nationals. The 10 points earned by Cockrell moved USC into a first-place tie with Arkansas at 43.
- Angie Annelus became a repeat champion in the NCAA 200m dash by winning today's final with a school and facility-record time of 22.16 (+1.3). Her time is also the world-leading time so far this season. She became just the fourth woman to win the NCAA 200m title in back to back seasons (Kimberlyn Duncan of LSU won 3 straight). USC has now won the event final three times, the others being Annelus last season and Natasha Mayers in 2002. Lanae-Tava Thomas had a time of 22.74 (+1.3) to finish sixth in the event. Together with Annelus, they earned USC 13 points and the Trojans moved into the lead with 56 points, an eight-point lead over Arkansas with 19 of 21 events scored.
- Taylor Werner of Arkansas then placed second in the women's 5000m race to make it a tie at 56-all going into the final event, the women's 4x400m relay.
- USC's 4x400m relay team of Bailey Lear, Kyra Constantine, Anna Cockrell and Kaelin Roberts would just have to beat Arkansas, but it wasn't meant to be. With about 100m left on the third leg, the Alabama runner bumped Cockrell and the baton came out of her hand. By the time she picked it up and passed off to Roberts, USC was out of the race and finished eighth with a time of 3:35.55. USC ended up earning a point and finished seven points behind Arkansas in the team competition.
Angie Annelus (100m, 200m, 4x100m), Chanel Brissett (100m hurdles, 4x100m), Anna Cockrell (100m hurdles, 400m hurdles, 4x400m), Kyra Constantine (400m, 4x400m), Bailey Lear (4x400m), Kaelin Roberts (4x400m), TeeTee Terry (100m, 4x100m), Lanae-Tava Thomas (200m, 4x100m).
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