USC 400-Meter Men Earn This Week's Performance of the Week Awards

Track and field fans voiced their choices in this week's DyeStat's Performance of the Week poll, while DyeStat's editors made their own selection.

Readers’ Choice: Michael Norman

With 30.39 percent of the vote, Michael Norman won our Readers’ Choice vote, beating Tamari Davis with her second-place tally of 26.49 percent.

Norman came into the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Championships having only run two races, a 400 meters in 45.00 and a leg on the USC 4x400 relay team that ran 3:01.98, both at the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational.

Only a sophomore, the young Trojan had the meet of his college career thus far by breaking the world record in the 400-meter final at nationals by running 44.52.

If Norman wanted to win his first NCAA title, he knew at the start line it would take a personal best to win. Auburn's Akeem Bloomfield won the first section of the final in 44.86. At the time, that ranked him fourth on the collegiate all-time list.

Norman made history in the second section. Crossing the line in 44.52 he broke Kerron Clement's 2005 world record of 44.57. That was also the collegiate record, as Clement ran that mark in a Florida uniform.

Editors’ Choice: Michael Norman and the USC Men

This week there were many great performances, but world records were broken in two races and both of those races featured Norman. Individually, Norman broke the indoor 400-meter world record, which in and of itself is worthy of recognition.

However, Norman also anchored the fastest indoor 4x400 relay of all-time. He and his teammates, Zach Shinnick, Rai Benjamin, Ricky Morgan Jr. ran 3:00.77, taking a full second off Poland's world record run set at the IAAF World Indoor Championships. Norman's split equaled his time in the open 400, 44.52.

It was Benjamin with not only the fastest split from the USC team, but in indoor 4x400 history. He split 44.35 on the second leg to give USC a sizable lead.

In the final lap of the race, it appeared Texas A&M and Florida might catch USC, but Norman showed his strength, pulling away in the final meters to take the victory. All three teams went under Poland's world record time.

While the USC relay performance is the fastest of all-time, it will not count as a world record. The IAAF record rules require all four athletes to be eligible to compete for the same country. Benjamin competes internationally for Antigua & Barbuda and his intent to transfer nationality to the U.S. is currently frozen by the IAAF. Therefore the world record will go to Texas A&M with its time of 3:01.39.

Nonetheless, this week's Editors' Choice award goes to Michael Norman and the USC men for their performances in the 400 meters and 4x400 relay.