USC Hosts Pac-12 Track & Field Championships This Weekend

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The top track & field athletes in the conference will converge upon USC this weekend, as the Trojans play host to the 2013 Pac-12 Track & Field Championships, held at Cromwell Field/Katherine Loker B. Stadium.

This is the first time since 2003 that the conference championships will be held in Troy. The Trojans have hosted five times since 1960, and have won three team championships on their own turf. The USC men’s team has won 10 Pac-12 team titles and in 2012 finished seventh overall with 74 points. The Women of Troy have captured just one team title (1996) and last season took fourth overall with 91 points.

Action is slated to begin on Saturday morning at 11 a.m., and then again at noon on Sunday. All events will take place at USC, save for both the men’s and women’s hammer throw competition, which will be held at West L.A. College.

The USC men’s team comes into the competition ranked No. 8 and the women’s team No. 21 nationally, while Oregon’s (No. 5) and UCLA’s (No. 15) men also receive a Top 25 national ranking. On the women’s side, Arizona (No. 5), Oregon (No. 7), ASU (No. 9), UCLA (No. 12), Stanford (No. 14), and Washington (No. 24) are all nationally ranked as well.

Of the many headliners in the field, USC redshirt senior and 2012 Olympian Bryshon Nellum is one of the biggest. He was recently added to the Bowerman Watch List, an award given to the top collegiate male track and field athlete, as voted on by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). This season, Nellum added the 200m race to his lineup and currently touts the second-fastest time in the country of 20.37, which he ran on April 27 in USC’s dual meet with UCLA. Also in that meet, Nellum was won the 200m, 400m and ran on the winning 4x400m relay, earning him a Pac-12 Athlete of the Week honor. In his speciality, the open 400m, he has the sixth-fasted time in the nation of 45.54. Aside from individual events, the sprinter is a key leg on USC’s 4x400m relay team.

After Pac-12s, USC will head to Texas for the West Preliminary Rounds from May 23-25, hosted by the University of Texas.

For a complete look at the Pac-12 Track & Field press release, click here.