USC Jumps at Chance to Face LSU

Two Olympians will be featured and two long-standing stadium records will be in jeopardy today when USC hosts defending NCAA men’s indoor and women’s outdoor track champion Louisiana State in a nonconference dual meet at Cromwell Field and Loker Stadium.

LSU’s men’s team is led by junior Walter Davis, who finished 11th in the triple jump in the Sydney Games. Davis won the NCAA men’s indoor title March 10, going 55 feet 5 inches, and finished second to fellow Olympian Savante Stringfellow of Mississippi in the long jump at the same meet with a leap of 26-3 1/2.

The stadium triple-jump record of 55-1 was set by former world-record holder Willie Banks in 1980, and long jump world-record holder Mike Powell jumped 26-9 3/4 at the facility in 1989.

Brigita Langerholc of Slovenia--fourth in the 800 meters at Sydney--will make her 2001 outdoor debut for the Trojan women, who finished second to LSU in the 2000 NCAA outdoor meet. According to Trojan Coach Ron Allice, Langerholc, who clocked 1:58.51 at Sydney, and teammate Aleksandra Deren of Poland will be looking to automatically qualify for the NCAA outdoor championships by clocking 2:05.00 or better.

Angela Williams of USC, the two-time NCAA outdoor champion at 100 meters, will make her second outdoor appearance. Williams set a collegiate record of 7.09 seconds while finishing second in the 60 meters in the indoor World Championships at Lisbon on March 11.