As far as dual meets go, the USC versus UCLA one produced results like no other in 2017.
This year’s edition, which took place Sunday at USC’s Loker Stadium, had 22 men’s performances and 23 women’s performances make the top 95 in the nation – not counting those athletes already in the top 95 beforehand – and the split was almost dead-even.
UCLA had 12 of those 23 performances for the women, and 11 of the men’s.
Despite the slight margin, the No. 38 Bruin women’s team could not pull off the upset in the end, and dropped their end of the dual meet to the No. 5 Trojans 86-77. Some points were decided by mere fractions of a second.
Sophomore Julia Rizk came up with a personal best in the 800-meter dash by more than two seconds to beat out USC’s Mikaela Smith by only five-hundredths of a second.
In both the 100-meter hurdles and the 100-meter dash , USC took all three of the scoring positions, though UCLA sophomore Suzie Acolatse and redshirt sophomore Pattriana Perry finished one-tenth and four-hundredths of a second, respectively, away from placing in the top three.
For other events, it was not as close.
UCLA swept the 5000-meter, with more than 30 seconds separating the first Bruin from the first Trojan, and there was more than two minutes between the respective teams’ steeplechasers.
In the javelin, senior Zaybree Haury improved on her personal best and UCLA all-time record throw of 51.28 meters that she set in March by almost another whole meter.
The new record Haury set Sunday is now 52.23 meters, which currently ranks 12th in the nation.
The tables flipped for the 4×100-meter relay – UCLA came in almost one and a half seconds behind USC, but the rest of the events were split fairly evenly.
Junior jumper Jessie Maduka posted the 17th best triple jump score in the nation with a distance of 13.13 meters, while redshirt senior Torie Owers and sophomore Ashlie Blake both threw nearly 55 feet in the shot put to place second and third, respectively.
As for the No. 18 men’s team, they took down the No. 8 Trojans 88-75 behind similar performances and distance sweeps.
Every finisher in the 1500-meter and the top-two finishers in the 5000-meter all had their points count for the visitors. Less than three-tenths of a second separated UCLA from sweeping the 5000-meter as well.
In the field, freshman Isaiah Holmes, in addition to setting a new season’s best in the long jump, garnered points in the triple jump and pole vault, both events that he hadn’t competed in this season.
The Bruins took first place in each of the throws events except the shot put, despite freshman Nate Esparza throwing the 17th farthest distance in the nation so far this year. His performance improved on his season’s best by nearly an entire meter.
But it was the sprints that stole the day for UCLA. The Bruins held their footing against a Trojan team that consistently has some of the top sprinters in the nation.
The door was open this year however for junior Leon Powell to take first place in the 100-meter dash with a personal best of 10.26 seconds, a time that puts him back in the top 40 nationally and broke a 14-year-long drought for UCLA in the event against USC.
He took second in the 200-meter as well, as did sophomore Rai Benjamin in the 400-meter dash with a lifetime best of 45.72 seconds, which is the fastest 400-meter time for UCLA since 2006.
Both Benjamin and Powell, along with senior Darnell Roberson and sophomore Damion Marshall, took second place in the 4×100-meter with a season-best 39.77 seconds.