I didn't want this story to get lost because I think it is an important one...

Bryshon Nellum is not a quitter!

Eighteen months after being shot in the legs Nellum is competing in this weekends Pac-10 Track and Field Championships.

This month, in his first individual race since the incident, Nellum covered 400 meters in 46.31 seconds, the third-fastest time in the Pacific 10 Conference this year. That performance qualified him for the conference championships Saturday and Sunday in Berkeley.

His time was well off his best of 45.38, run three years ago just after his senior year in high school, but Nellum said, "When I finished that race I was feeling good, I was feeling great, I was happy, I was just cheerful. … I know I'm on the right track."

After the shooting doctors told that he would probably never to be able to compete at this level ever again.

Nellum was obviously undeterred...

I don't know how the final chapter will turn out with Nellum at USC but you have to love this kids Grit. This isn't about USC, this about the human spirit. That he is a Trojan is icing on the cake.

Regardless of the program, this sort of perseverance is what make college athletics great!

FIGHT ON!

The USC men fishish 2nd and the USC Women finish forth.

USC's Ahmad Rashad won bothe the 100m and 200m in 10.13 and 20.82 respectively.

From The USC website...

USC's track and field team captured five titles today (May 17) led by Ahmad Rashad's wins in the 100m and 200m dashes as the men's team placed second and the women's team fourth at the Pac-10 Track and Field Championships being hosted by Oregon at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. The USC women team began the day with 26 points and in fifth place, while the men's team entered the final day with 16 points and in seventh.

Joining Rashad in winning 2009 Pac-10 titles were Oscar Spurlock in the men's 110m HH, Eva Orban in the women's hammer and the men's 4x400m relay team.

"I'm very happy with the way both teams competed all meet," said USC Director of Track and Field Ron Allice. "In any other year, the way our men's team performed here they would have won a championship."

The Oregon Men and Women won the the meet outright but USC had a solid showing.

Congrats Ladies and Gents!

FIGHT ON!

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend...

It looks like it was great week weekend for USC athletics With the Ladies Rowing team beating ucla. The Mens Volleyball team beat Pepperdine to reach the Final Four.

Both of those victories is a big deal but not as much as Track and Field.

Both the Trojans men's and women's teams defeated UCLA, 92-71 and 93-70, respectively, at Loker Stadium on Saturday -- the first time both squads vanquished the Bruins in the same dual meet. The rivalry has reached 76 meets on the men's side, but the women's series dates to 1984.

"I don't think we ever had a team all the way across the board compete like this," Alice said. "We had some great ones in my 15 years, but never in a dual meet."

Track and Field is tougher for USC to dominate in because of Scholarships and Tuition. Wolf makes an excellent observation.

Because track scholarships are often split in half, it costs an athlete much more to go to USC and makes it much harder to sign recruits and field a deep team for meets like today.

And the numbers bear that out with the USC women beating ucla for only the second time in 15 years and third time in 15 years on the men's side. It should not surprise anyone that ucla has a better overall track program because of the cost of tuition.

Of course no good deed goes unpunished...

Despite the frustration, UCLA women's Coach Jeanette Bolden felt satisfied with the Bruins taking first in nine events. She didn't show much concern about the USC women beating UCLA for the second straight year after a 15-year winless drought.

"They have a while before they catch our record," Bolden said of her team's 21-5 all-time mark. "We know they won the last two years. But I also know we won the last 15 years before that."

Not surprising that she wants to live in the past...what is it with some ucla (and Domer) faithful that can't let go of the past?

it also seems that some of the ucla mens sprinters got caught counting their chickens before they hatched.

When USC sprinter Ahmad Rashad was disqualified for false starts in the UCLA-USC dual meet 100-meter dash Saturday afternoon, the Bruins made no effort to disguise their joy.

"They started celebrating, they were high-fiving," Trojans sprinter Matthew Palmer said.

In a meet where the Trojans had little margin for error, the disqualification of Rashad, the 2007 Pac-10 100 champion, could have been devastating.

"You could feel the momentum switch," Palmer said.

Palmer, whose four years at USC have been marked by injury and disappointment, switched it right back, crashing the Bruins' premature celebration with an upset 10.50-second victory that proved to be the turning point for a Trojans men's victory and a historical afternoon for college track and field's most storied rivalry.

And there you go...could it be that they thought they had it in the bag?

Anyway, Congrats to all our victorious Trojans this past weekend!

FIGHT ON!

(Little late on this one, but life is like that sometimes.)

USC's women's track and field team beat ucla 86 - 77 in a dual meet at ucla this past weekend. This was the first time that the USC women's team had beated the bruins since 1992.

A large part of the reason that the Trojans won was the efforts of Carol Rodriguez, who ran despite a hamstring injury. She won the 400m race, and also ran a strong third leg of the 4 x 400 relay, taking the baton a step or three behind and building a big lead for Myra Hasson to bring home.

The men's team was not able to get over the hump, losing to ucla 74 - 89. They had beaten the Bruins last year at USC, but have not beaten the bruins at ucla since 1977. Said the Director of Track and Field :

"This means a lot to us [...] As the trainers and staff can tell you we didn't have everyone available or at full health. The Dual Meet is so very significant from the standpoint of the exposure and the visibility for the fans. The difference was that we had some distance runners this year, which is not normally our flagship. This is good for morale. The men won last year and we would have liked to have seen it happen again this year, so next year the goal is to win them both in the same season"

Congratulations to the Women of Troy, and respect to the bruins for - if you'll pardon the phrase - gutting it out to win on the strength of a strong showing at the end of the meet. I'm sure they'll understand if I don't wish them good luck for next year though.