Track and field looks to rebuild

By Sean Kearns
Sports Editor

As tough as it is to admit it for Ron Allice, the Director of the USC Track and Field program, it's rebuilding time for the men's team.
Following a fourth-place finish at the NCAA meet last season, the Trojans lost six All-Americans and all but two of its point scorers at NCAAs.
"We literally lost 80 percent of the team on the men's side to graduation," Allice said. "So this is a rebuilding situation. You don't like to say that. You like to reload rather than rebuild."
The difference between rebuilding a men's track program as opposed to a woman's team is that the men are allowed only 12 scholarship while the woman have 16.
Allice knows it would be a nice and an ideal situation to build a team around balance -- having solid sprinters, distance runners, jumpers and throwers. Yet with only 12 scholarships, the trend in men's track and field is to build up a few areas with quality people.
Some programs build based on the specialty of the head coach and others on the events that dominate the respective regions of the country. Allice is building the Trojans based on tradition.
"I think what you have to do at USC is follow the tradition of the institution," Allice said. "Our heritage here is second to none. The heritage in this program is based on the sprints, the hurdles and the throwers.
"There's an obligation and a responsibility and a mandate to try to put together a program that is strong in the areas that their heritage is rooted."
And so this season, USC will basically rely on those areas. Balazs Kiss is a three-time NCAA champion in the hammer throw. Giving USC depth in the is Bengt Johannson, who qualified for NCAAs on his first throw.
In the hurdles, USC looks to NCAA All-American, Kenny Alade'fa.
Led by Jason Shelton (100-meters), USC is probably strongest in the sprints. Shelton was injured most of his first two season at USC but just recently ran a wind-aided 10.21 to win the 100 at the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Invitational.
He is joined by freshmen 200 and 400 runners, Jerome Davis and Ramsey Jay. Football players Anthony Volsan and Kenny Haslip give even more depth in the sprints.
USC also picked up some help in the distance with the signing of Brandon Pacheco.
So Allice builds with tradition.
But at this point Kiss is doing his best to be the Parry O'Brien (two-time Olympic champion in the shot put) of the hammer throw but USC doesn't have appear to have any Mark Crears (hurdles) or Quincy Watts (sprint) waiting to bust out.
Even rebuilding tradition can take a while.
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Three weeks into the track and field season both the men's and women's teams are undefeated in dual meet action.
The most recent wins were over spring break as the Trojans (5-0) defeated Long Beach State and the Women of Troy (6-0) defeated both Long Beach and San Diego State.
According to Allice, the USC women's track and field team has the most balance and depth since the mid-to-late 1980's when USC won the Pacific 10 Conference championship (1986) as well as a third place finish at the NCAA Championships (1987).
But Allice is reserving judgment on a team that had only one scorer at NCAAs last season.
"I don't have a feel for this team until I see how they perform over the next three or four weeks," Allice said. "They haven't had the test of fire."
The fire is rapidly approaching as Allice is sending half of his men's and woman's teams to Louisiana State this weekend for a dual meet.
The Lady Tigers, winners of the last nine outdoor NCAA championships, qualify as the basic Malibu disaster.
"They will be scorched and it will be interesting," Allice said.
The Women of Troy are being led by Leslie Coons, a hammer thrower who transferred to USC for the University of South Carolina.
"She sought us out," Allice said. "She is a hammer thrower and we have a reputation of having an outstanding technical coach (Dan Lange) in the hammer throw."