Track and field may be an individual sport, but for USC’s men’s indoor team, it was teamwork that was the key to winning a team national championship for the first time in 52 years.
“The chemistry was a very key factor because it has a direct correlation to performance,” junior high jumper Elias Gerald said. “I would say that that’s why we’re one of the best teams in the NCAA: because we’re one of the most tight-knit teams.”
The connection between the team didn’t happen overnight. This team has been chasing a national championship for years.
“[When] I came in, we had a really big recruiting class,” junior jumper JC Stevenson said. “Just watching everybody grow, not as athletes, but just as people… I think that’s what it takes to win a championship. It’s not always talent.”
The team learned a hard lesson in March at the Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships: they can be doing extremely well individually, but that doesn’t always translate to a team win.
“Going into the Big Ten [Championships], we were the favorites,” senior sprinter Travis Williams said. “Went through day one [as] favorites, came day two, favorites. [It] came down to the [4x400m relay]. We won that, but then the decision overturned.”
USC initially celebrated the conference Championship in Virginia Beach, until Purdue contested the 4x400m event and USC was disqualified, placing the Trojans in second place.
“We can say bias, we can say misjudgment, we can say unfairness, we can say whatever we wanna say,” Williams said. “At the end of the day, it’s not gonna change the decision that was made.”
The Trojans weren’t going to let that set them back; they liked the way victory felt. For about 20 minutes, they were champions, so they chased that feeling. If conference champs felt good, imagine how good nationals would feel. The athletes believed that they were the best team in the country, so they were determined to prove that at nationals.
“We went into nationals, we had a chip on our shoulder,” Gerald said. “We were saying, ‘Alright, you can have the small potatoes, but at the end of the day, we want the big ones.’”
Chemistry and talent had gotten them far in the conference. So, what did they change going into nationals?
The mindset.
Ever since graduate jumper Brady Palen walked on campus after transferring from Wichita State, he had hopes of winning a championship, as did everyone else around him.
“I really think it started with people like captain [junior sprinter Max Thomas],” Palen said. “The first time I stepped on campus, he was talking about winning a national championship.”
Between the belief the Trojans had in each other and the belief that was instilled in them by program director Quincy Watts, they knew they were destined for more. Watts kept them grounded by not allowing them to be complacent and look too much into the rankings.
Watts, a former Trojan and an Olympian, pushed the athletes to their fullest potential and motivated them to turn their frustrations from the conference title game into motivation.
“He congratulates all of us, but he also doesn’t let us settle, like, yes, you can win, but it’s about winning when it counts,” senior jumper and hurdler Johnny Brackins Jr. said. “[A championship] was already written, in my opinion.”
While winning has always been on top of their mind, the Trojans’ mindset shifted into a cat and mouse game.
“What we needed to do was to come together and act like we were the targets,” Gerald said. “Like we’re the mouse, we gotta get away from the cat.”
The team got to the national stage with no one setting a record, but all were consistent. Not one person placed higher than fourth place. Despite not having the best individual days, the team still rallied around each other. Whenever someone was competing, the whole team was watching and cheering them on.
“We were all supportive the entire way because we had known what we were capable of,” Gerald said. “I could say personally, it gave me a boost when I was high jumping and to hear my teammates cheer me on, and it gave me the confidence I needed to score the points that my team expected me to get.”
The team celebrated their huge accomplishment like any other team would: they took Instagram pictures and ate greasy pizza.
Stevenson slept with the trophy, Williams made a Tik Tok and the Trojan Marching Band greeted them when they came back home to L.A.
The best part about the championship though?
Winning as a team.
“If I have to sacrifice an individual championship to bring home a team championship, I would be fully okay,” Gerald said. “To be able to write our name in the history books, like, our names will be on a wall somewhere forever, and I think that’s the coolest part about it is that nobody can ever take it away from us.
The championship is cool and all, but what’s better than one championship? Two. That’s the Trojans’ mindset right now, as they’re going after another one in the outdoor season.
“It felt great. It felt amazing, actually,” Williams said. “So that’s why we all have that extra motivation going on outdoor now. We gotta win a second one.”
The Trojans have a couple more regular-season meets before taking another shot at history in the Big Ten Outdoor Championships and the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.