May 29, 2002

2002 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships
May 29-June 1
Bernie Moore Track Stadium
Baton Rouge, LA

Wednesday, May 29th Results (Day One)

Team Standings:

Women (3 events)-1. UCLA: 15, 2. Clemson and North Carolina State: 10, 4. Liberty, South Florida, Nebraska and Colorado--8, 15: USC--3.

Men (2 events)-1. Georgia: 15, 2. LSU: 11, 3. SMU and Wichita State: 8, 5. Depaul and Southern: 6.

USC Coach Ron Allice: "There's a long way to go. We had a solid day when you add the plusses with the minuses. I'm pleased with how hard our athletes competed. The next couple days will sort everything out. There's a lot of teams in this thing."

USC WOMEN

Field Finals

Hammer-Sophomore L'Orangerie Crawford earned her first career All-American honor by placing a solid sixth in the hammer with a throw of 204-4. Her come-through performance scored three team points for the Women of Troy. Junior Julianna Tudja, the USC record holder who took third in the hammer at last year's meet, was ninth with a throw of 197-3.

Track Prelims

4 x 100m relay-USC's relay team made up of seniors Angela Williams, Disia Page, Natasha Neal and Kinshasa Davis clocked 43.79 to qualify for Friday's final of the 4 x 100m relay. The Women of Troy's time was the second-fastest of the day behind LSU's 43.57.

Disia Page on the race: "Angela got us off to an awesome start. We rely on her to get us off to a good start. Everybody serves their own personal role. I'm just an addition. I run the second leg and just try to keep the lead than Angela gives me and we just work with that.

"Our handoffs are always smooth. We concentrate a lot on chemistry and that allows for our smooth handoffs.

"That was our second-fastest time of the year, but we're looking to run a lot faster on Friday."

400m IH-Junior Aleksandra Pieluzek ran 58.62 to finish third in the first heat of the 400m hurdles, but did not advance to the final.

800m-Senior Aleksandra Deren bounced back strongly from a sub-par showing at last year's NCAAs by running 2:06.90 to win the second heat and advance to Friday's finals of the 800m.

Deren on her win: "I just wanted to make it to the finals. Last year, I didn't make it into the finals and so this year I really wanted to make it.

"For now, time really isn't that important. I just want to do my best throughout the weekend and pull for my team. I just hope I can come in the top three."

200m-In just her second 200m race for the Women of Troy, junior Natasha Mayers won heat three of the 200m in a blistering personal-best 22.80-third-fastest-ever at USC and fourth all-time in the Pac-10. She and teammate Kinshasa Davis--who ran a season-best 22.98 to take third in Mayers' heat-have advanced to Saturday's 200m final. Angela Williams ran 23.24 to finish second in heat one, but missed out making the final by just two one-hundredths of a second. Williams will return on Thursday to begin her run for a fourth title in her specialty, the 100m dash.

USC MEN

Track Prelims

4 x 100m relay-The USC squad of junior Darrell Rideaux, senior Sultan McCullough, freshman Wes Felix and junior Kareem Kelly ran a season-best 39.28 to finish third in heat one and advance to Friday's final of the 4 x 100m relay. It was the fourth-fastest qualifying mark of the day.

800m-Senior Kevin Elliott ran 1:50.20 in to finish sixth in heat two and did not advance to the finals of the 800m run. Elliot ends his Trojan career in ninth on the all-time USC 800m chart (1:47.40).