USC Men's 4x400m Relay Points Wiped Off, Ducks Win By 7.5 Points Over Former Pac-12 Foe To Capture First Big Ten Title

By David Woods for DyeStat

Bobby Goddin Photos

DAY 2 PHOTOS|INTERVIEWS

INDIANAPOLIS – A compelling team duel complementing a weekend of world-class track and field ended in unsatisfying fashion Saturday night in the expanded men’s Big Ten Indoor Championships.

Satisfying, certainly, for champion Oregon, which rebounded from a sixth-place finish at the last outdoor Pac-12 meet in 2024.

Not so much for USC, which seemingly won the team title before a disqualification in the climactic 4x400-meter relay snatched it away.

“It’s a lot to swallow,” USC coach Quincy Watts said. “We’ll reset and get ready for nationals.”

Setting the scene:

Ahead of the 4x400, Oregon had 106 points to USC’s 99.5. The Trojans needed to be second or first to secure the team title, and they were second to Purdue. Thus a 107.5-106 victory in their new conference at a new Fall Creek Pavilion on the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

There was bumping on the third leg involving Purdue and USC, and a protest was filed by Purdue. USC was subsequently DQ’d for impeding a Purdue runner. Watts said he was surprised because the Boilermakers went ahead and won anyway.

“It definitely wasn’t egregious,” he said, suggesting a DQ could as easily been charged to Purdue. The Boilermakers won in 3:04.95. USC, anchored by Antoine Spencer's 44.77, was originally second in 3:05.13.

Oregon scored 75 points in six races longer than 400 meters and scraped up enough elsewhere to beat USC, which scored 69 in four sprint/hurdles races.

Defending champion Wisconsin was third with 83 points. The former Pac-12 schools took three of the top four spots with Washington, a pre-meet co-favorite, placing fourth with 67.

Jerry Schumacher, in his third year at Oregon, said his coaching staff knew the underdog Ducks could get into the mix.

“It might not look like it on paper yet, but we knew we had a good team,” he said. “Just getting here and getting in the environment, and athletes who believed in it, the men’s team pulled together perfectly when they needed to.”

Perhaps Schumacher’s most strategic move was to double Matthew Erickson and freshman Koitatoi Kidali in the 800 and 600 meters, in which the finals were 45 minutes apart.

They went 1-2 in an 800 won by Erickson in 1:46.86. Kidali, a Kenyan Olympian, was second in the 600 by six-thousandths-of-a-second behind Penn State’s Olivier Desmeules, both timed in 1:15.89 in separate sections. Erickson was sixth in the 600.

In two races, the two Ducks combined for 29 points.

“We love these championship races,” Erickson said. “We love going out and competing against people.”

In the mile, Washington had five in the final and Oregon two, but the Ducks had a 13-10 edge in scoring.

Michigan sophomore Trent McFarland won a sit-and-kick mile in 4:03.56, sprinting the last 200 meters in 26.87. Oregon’s Elliott Cook and Tomas Palfrey were second and fourth, sandwiched around the Huskies’ Cole Lindhorst. Washington’s Ronan McMahon-Staggs, top seeded at 3:51.85, was sixth in 4:05.48.

McFarland said he knew he had the fastest 200 if he “stayed connected” to the front. He said he was not scared of Washington’s sub-4-minute milers.

“I’m not scared of anybody, no matter what your time is or what your ranking is,” McFarland said.

McFarland, still 19, won Big Ten and USATF U20 1,500s last year. He was a 5-11 guard in high school basketball in Utica, Mich., scoring 10 points per game. His 1,600 meters best was 4:16.74, but he won a state 800 meters in 1:50.68.

Another miler, Washington’s Nathan Green, beat last year’s mile champion, Wisconsin’s Adam Spencer, to win the 3,000 in 7:53.88. Green anchored the Huskies to victory in the distance medley relay Friday night.

The only individual double winner was USC’s Johnny Brackins, who broke his meet record with a time of 7.49 in the 60-meter hurdles. He also won Friday’s long jump.

Other USC winners were JC Stevenson, who clocked 6.56 to lead a 1-2-4-5 finish in the 60 meters, and William Jones, 45.90 in the 400. Jones moved up from second after apparent winner Jake Palermo of Penn State was DQ’d.

Purdue’s Cameron Miller, after setting a meet record of 20.27 in trials of the 200, won the final in 20.31. He led off for the Boilermakers in the 4x400 in 46.40.

Men’s champions in the field on day two were Tyus Wilson of Nebraska (high jump, 7-4.5 (2.25m)); Praise Aniamaka of Purdue (triple jump, 53-5.5 (16.29m)); and Jason Swarens of Wisconsin, shot put, 66-5 (20.24m).

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.