Nellum, Brown & Ndipagbor Each Win Three Events At Dual Meet

Trojans fall to crosstown rival UCLA

Junior Aaron Brown was a three-time winner today at the USC-UCLA Dual Meet, winning the 100m dash and running on the Trojans' winning 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams.
April 27, 2013





Complete Results

Bryshon Nellum, Aaron Brown and Akawkaw Ndipagbor each won three events, but it wasn't enough as USC was swept at home in the USC-UCLA Dual Meet today (April 27) before an estimated crowd of 2,800. The men's meet went down to the second to last event with the Trojans falling 85-78, while the women's team lost 90-73.

Perhaps the highlight of the meet for USC was Nellum's amazing 200m time of 20.37 which won the event, set a PR (breaking his amazing high school PR of 20.43), was the fastest collegiate time this season, fourth-fastest in the world and moved him to fourth on USC's all-time list in the 200m dash. Right behind him to pick up three more valuable points was Brown with a time of 20.66. Sophomore BeeJay Lee was fourth with a time of 21.41 and sophomore Bryan Mercado was seventh with a time of 22.25. In the second section freshman Luke Niu had a season-best time of 23.60 and Will Robinson had a time of 24.24.

Nellum also led USC to a 1-2 finish in the 400m dash as he cruised to victory with a time of 46.26, followed closely by senior Reggie Wyatt with a time of 46.47. UCLA's Pete Lauderdale placed third with a time of 47.26.

Nellum's final race of the day was running leadoff on the 4x400m relay which USC won with a season-best time of 3:11.62 despite it not mattering in the team scroing as the Bruins had just locked up the meet by winning the triple jump. USC's team was comprised of Nellum, sophomore Myles Andrews, Brown and Wyatt.

The win in the 4x400m race was Brown's third victory on the day as he also won the 100m and ran on the winning 4x100m relay. Brown really had to win the 100m dash twice as in the first race he was really starting to separte, but the gun went off after the runners had already gone nearly 40 meters into the race due to a slippage with one of the starting block. After they restarted it was still was a great race with Brown winning with a time of 10.24 and BeeJay Lee taking second with a PR of 10.25. UCLA's Max Dyce finished third with a PR of 10.31. Mercado placed fifth with a PR of 10.76 and Niu placed sixth with a season-best time of 11.65. It was USC's 11th consecutive 100m victory in the Dual Meet.

He also won with the 4x100m relay team of BeeJay Lee, Brown, redshirt freshman Jovante Slater and Mercado which posted a time of 40.18.

The sophomore Ndipagbor was just as busy and successful, winning the women's 200m dash, winning on both relays and taking second in the 100m race. The women's 200m race actually decided the meet on the women's side, despite Ndipagbor winning with a time of 23.73 and junior Jenna Puterbaugh taking third with a time of 23.84. UCLA's Kylie Price split them to take second and earn three points to give the Bruins and 82-58 lead with three events to go and a total of 82 points needed to win. Junior Loudia Laarman took fourth with a PR of 23.96.

Ndipagbor teammed with Laarman, junior Jessica Davis and sophomore Melia Cox to win the 4x100m race with a season-best time of 43.86 which is the ninth-fastest by a college quartet this season. She later ran the leadoff leg in the final race of the meet for the women, the women's 4x400m relay. She teamed with sophomore Vanessa Jones, freshman Jaide Stepter and junior Ashley Liverpool to win with a time of 3:39.69.

Ndipagbor also took second in the women's 100m dash with a PR of 11.48, while Laarman took fourth with a PR of 11.62. Senior Caroline Lutzky ran in the second heat of the 100m race and had a PR of 13.47. The bad part of the race was that Davis pulled up halfway with tighness in her hamstring and was out of the rest of the meet. This win by UCLA snapped the Trojan women's 11-year dominance in the 100m dash.

The day began with the women's 5000m race and it was all UCLA as the Bruins' Katja Goldring won going away to lead the Bruins' sweep. Trojan sophomores Erin Matranga finished seventh with a time of 19:14.67 and Austin Lundin eighth with a time of 19:45.09. The 9-0 sweep left the Trojan women trailing 6-12.

The Trojan women then bounced back strongly by taking first and third in the women's 3000m steeplechase with freshman Jenna Tong winning with a PR of 10:59.73 to move into fourth place on USC's all-time list. Tong actually went for a full swim on the final water hazard, but got up seemingly refreshed and actually stretched out her lead down the final stretch. The freshman Katerina Berdousi also went fully underwater on the second to last water hazard and fell from second to third and could not make up the ground, but still finished with a time of 11:09.82 to move into ninth place on USC's all-time list. Sophomore Kira Soderstrom ran a PR of 11:14.41 to finish fourth. That time kept her 10th-place standing on USC's all-time list despite Berdousi entering the top 10, as she vaulted over Chanel Fischetti.

At the same time the results of the women's javelin were in and it was a sweep for the Bruins to take a 24-12 lead. Throwing for USC today, all making their collegiate debuts in the javelin were redshirt Ashley Pyka (4th, 107-8), junior Jenny Ozorai (5th - 96-11), senior Alitta Boyd (6th - 95-11) and redshirt senior Farren Benjamin (7th - 77-9).

The men's team started the day's action strong by sweeping the high jump with senior Tyler Ruiz taking first with a clearance of 6-11.75 (2.13m) and junior Viktor Fajoyomi and junior Herb Dew tying for second wth a clearance of 6-8.75 (2.05m). Junior Doug Bogie took fourth with a jump of 6-2.75 (1.90m).

The Bruin men answered right back with a sweep of their own in the men's 3000m SC as there were only four UCLA runners in the race and they all completed the circuit to gain nine points and leave USC with a 14-13 lead.

Next were the Trojan wins in the 4x100m races to give the USC men a 19-13 lead and the Trojan women a 24-17 deficit.

UCLA's Brea Buchanan then won the women's 100m HH with a PR of 12.95, while Trojans Melia Cox took second with a time of 13.40 and Lauren Blackburn placed third with a season-best time of 13.41. Stepter for the second week in a row had a PR, today of 14.35, to finish fifth and sophomore Kiana Henry placed sixth with a PR of 14.76.

UCLA's Turqouise Thompson then won the women's 400m dash with a PR of 52.31 and she needed to as Trojans Ashley Liverpool and Vanessa Jones both ran their best races of the season. Liverpool took second with a time of 53.06 to move into 10th place on USC's all-time 400m list. Jones had a PR of 53.13 to take third and move into an 11th-place tie on the Trojans' all-time list in the event. Following these two events, the USC women trailed 25-34.

UCLA swept the men's 1500m race to take a 22-19 lead. Senior Eric Battles was USC's only finisher and he placed sixth with a time of 3:53.86.

Junior Aleec Harris won the men's 110m HH with a time of 13.69 and sophomore Allen Williams took second with a time of 14.77 to earn USC eight more points. Fajoyomi placed fifth with a time of 15.11 and sophomore Jemal Williams was sixth with a time of 15.60.

Following a sweep for the Bruins in the men's shot put, another event without a Trojan entered, USC had its 1-2 finish in the 400m race to leave the team scoring at 35-33 USC.

The men's javelin results then came in with redshirt senior Cooper Thompson taking second with a best throw of 216-10 (66.10m) to earn three points for the Trojans. Redshirt junior Jeffrey Churchman finished fifth with a throw of 169-10 (51.77m). With that result, UCLA had edged to the front with a 39-38 advantage.

Following USC earning three points in the women's side and eight points in the men's side in the 100m dash, the races stood at 40-28 UCLA in the women's competition and 46-40 USC in the men's battle.

The women's 800m race had the Bruins take the first two spots to earn eight more points, with senior Shelby Buckley taking third with a season-best time of 2:12.49. Senior Kelly Owen placed fifth with a PR of 2:15.47 and junior Jackie Dion was seventh with a season-best time of 2:22.11 and junior Natalia Williams eighth with a season-best time of 2:24.09.

Andrews then fired up the crowd with an impressive come-from-behind victory in the men's 800m race with a time of 1:49.81. He moved up from sixth to third on the back stretch, then took second on the final turn and ran down UCLA's Alex Monsivaiz in the final 40 meters to claim victory. USC freshman Kyle Iverson was sixth with a time of 1:54.91 and senior Barry Wilkins was eighth with a season-best time of 1:58.02. In the second 800m heat, senior Ryan Thomas was third with a time of 2:00.18, redshirt junior Spencer Remick was fourth with a time of 2:00.57, freshman Surafael Yared was fifth with a time of 2:03.52 and Robinson was sixth with a time of 2:06.95. The results left USC with a 51-44 lead.

The women's team looked like they were starting to get back into the meet. First they swept the discus throw with sophomore Alexandra Collatz winning with a best throw of 177-9 (54.17m), freshman Tera Novy taking second with a throw of 159-10 (48.72m) and Ozorai placing third with a season-best throw of 154-5 (47.07m).

Then Novy won the shot put competition with a season-best mark of 45-11.75 (14.01m) and Ozorai took second with a season-best throw of 42-6.25 (12.96m). Redshirt junior Lauren Chambers also competed in the shot put and placed fourth with a best mark of 41-5.00 (12.62m) in her first attempts in the shot put this season.

Boyd took second in the women's long jump with a best leap of 19-9.00 (6.02m), while Cox in her first collegiate long jump attempts posted a best jump of 18-5.00 (5.61m) to place fourth and senior Jennifer Jones finished fifth with a jump of 17-9.50 (5.42m). USC had closed the gap in the women's team competition to 49-55, but then the Trojans could muster only one second-place finish in the next three events to leave the team scoring at 52-79.

UCLA's women swept the pole vault competition, but freshman Felicia Horvath had a season-best clearance of 12-0.50 (3.67m) to finish fifth. Redshirt junior Thea Weiss was seventh (12-0.50), freshman Ariel Hayward was ninth (11-6.50), redshirt senior Katherine Chang was 11th (10-0-75) and freshman Isabel Lozowski was 12th (10-0.75).

In the women's 400m IH, UCLA's Thompson cruised to victory with a time of 57.58 and Stepter placed second with a time of 62.13. Redshirt senior Kathryn Karkut placed fifth with a time of 69.11 and Blackburn tripped over a hurdle on the back stretch and did not finish.

Then the Bruins swept the high jump to end up on the brink of victory, despite all three Trojan jumpers posting season bests. Redshirt junior Jennifer Stutland was fourth with a clearance of 5-6.00 (1.68m), Malia Cravens was fifth with a clearance at 5-5.00 (1.65m) and Henry was eighth with a clearance at 4-9.00 (1.45m).

The men's team then saw its 51-44 lead turn into a 67-55 deficit. First UCLA's Michael Perry won the long jump with a leap of 24-6.25, just edjing Ruiz who placed second with a wind-aided PR of 24-3.75 (7.41m). Sophomore football star Marqise Lee took third in his first competition of the season also with a best jump of 24-3.75 (7.41m), improving nearly with each jump. Redshirt junior David Selma had a PR of 23-8.00 (7.21m) to take fifth, Fajoyomi was sixth with a jump of 23-2.75 (7.08m) and Dew in his first long jump competition as a Trojan was seventh with a best leap of 22-7.00 (6.88m).

UCLA swept the men's discus throw with only junior Remington Conatser giving it a whirl and placing sixth in his first attempt at the event this season with a best mark of 148-7 (45.29m).

UCLA also swept the men's pole vault competition, but Jemal Williams set a PR with a clearance of 14-6.25 (4.43m) to place sixth, sophomore Steven Cherry cleared a season-best 13-6.50 (4.13m) to finish seventh and freshman Aiden Louie matched a season-best of 12-6.75 (3.83m) to finish eighth.

Wyatt then eased into a victory in the men's 400m IH, taking the lead down the back stretch and finishing with a time of 52.79. Junior Greg Starkey earned USC a point by placing third with a PR of 54.03. This result cut the deficit for the Trojan men to 70-61.

The women's 200m race was next and despite Ndipagbor's win, USC now trailed 82-58 and was eliminated in the team competition. The men, however, went 1-2 with Nellum and Brown to cut the team deficit to 71-69.

UCLA then swept the men's 5000m race with Trojan senior Eric Kleinsasser placing sixth with a time of 15:11.38. After the men's 5000m race, UCLA held a 80-69 lead and just needed to place third in the triple jump and more than halfway through the competition held second.

Well, things actually got worse as UCLA's Dillon Stucky lauched a wind-aided jump of 51-1.50 to win the competition and ultimatley the meet as after the triple jump, USC trailed 85-73. Allen Williams took second with a big PR of 49-8.25 (15.14m) and Fajoyomi took third with a wind-aided jump of 49-3.75 (15.03m). Also, Ruiz was fourth with a PR of 47-9.75 (14.57m) and Dew was fifth with a jump of 47-2.50 (14.39m).

Sophomore Erica Capellino placed third in the women's 1500m race with a time of 4:30.00, Berdousi was fourth with a time of 4:32.34 and freshman Natasha Strickland was seventh with a time of 4:36.54.

The women swept the triple jump with Boyd winning with a jump of 43-4.25 (13.21m). Cox took second with a PR of 43-1.75 (13.15m) to move from eighth to sixth on USC's all-time list. Junior Oluwakemi Olonade took third with a wind-aided PR of 41-8.50 (12.71m), redshirt senior Candace Bailey was fifth with a jump of 39-1.00 (11.91m) and Jennifer Jones was sixth with a best jump of 35-9.50 (10.91m).

The Trojans closed out the meet by winning both the women's and men's 4x400m races for the final scores of 90-73 UCLA women and 85-78 UCLA men. The Trojan women had their five-meet winning streak over UCLA snapped and the USC men saw their all-time lead in the series drop to 42-38.






Courtesy USC