TRACK AND FIELD / NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS : USC Men’s Trophy Dash Is All-Out Sprint

Jim Bush, USC’s men’s track coach, still hasn’t figured out if it’s a blessing or a curse, this stable of sprinters of his. But if all goes well at the NCAA track and field meet, beginning today at the University of Texas at Austin, the five Trojan sprinters could give the school its first outdoor title since 1976.

On the other hand, being sprinters, a couple of false starts or a dropped baton and the whole project could go bust. Even though most projections have USC finishing anywhere from first to fourth in the team standings, Bush acknowledges that it’s dicey to count on sprinters at an NCAA meet, where durability is crucial.

“We’re in the hunt,” Bush said. “But you can never count on anything for sure. And, with just sprinters, we’ll have a few people doing a lot of work. It’s tough to get to the end of the meet. It’s a lot of races.”

Each of the runners--Quincy Watts, Curtis Conway, Mark Crear, Travis Hannah and Jeff Laynes--is entered in one or two individual events and either the 400- or 1,600-meter relays. The meet will be grueling for each. Conway, for example, will compete in the 100 and 200, and run a leg in both relays.

Add to that the heat and humidity of a Texas summer, and USC’s chances rest on the thin edge of near-perfection.

“Everything has to go just right for us, if we have a chance to win,” said Watts, who has the best chance of any Trojan to win his event. He is the top-ranked collegian and No. 2 in the world this season at 400 meters, with a time of 44.43.

Watts is entered in the 400 and will run the anchor leg of the 1,600-meter relay. Because of a scheduling conflict, though, Watts has been taken off the 400-meter relay, which will be run only an hour after a qualifying race in the 400. Running that relay without his best people, Bush says, might cost USC the title.

In the other events: Crear is the top-ranked collegian in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.48. He was third at the NCAA meet in 1990. Hannah will run the 400 and the 1,600-relay, and Laynes is entered in the 100 and 200 and the 400 relay.

The Trojan women are also strong in the sprints, led by sophomore Inger Miller. She is ranked No. 2 in the 100 with a wind-aided time of 11.09 and No. 1 in the 200 in 23.19, also wind-aided. Miller will anchor USC’s 400-meter relay team, which won the Pac-10 title. Michelle DeCoux is in the top five in the 400-meter hurdles.

UCLA’s men’s and women’s teams lack USC’s depth, but have some top individual performers.

John Godina, a redshirt freshman, is projected to finish in the top three in both the discus and shotput, as is Dawn Dumble. Sprinter Tony Miller won the 100 and 200 at the Pac-10 meet, and 400-meter hurdler Marty Beck’s season-best time of 49.90 would place him high.