June 10, 2003
On the eve of the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif., USC’s nine men and nine women headed to the track this morning for a light work-out. The hard work of training is done. Now, they must begin mentally preparing themselves for the next four days that will be the NCAA Championships. The women won the school’s first ever NCAA title at the meet in 2002, while the men finished sixth.
USC Head track and field coach Curtis Frye and sophomore Tiffany Ross joined a star field of athletes and some of the finest coaches in the country today at the NCAA Championships Press Conference for the women’s team. Here are a few clips from the press conference:
Q: Tiffany, you are competing in four events here this weekend. Talk about how you will handle that.
Tiffany A: I am competing in the 100m hurdles, the 400m hurdles, and as a member of the 4x100m relay and the 4x400m relay. I am going to be mentally prepared. That is what I am doing these first few days here. My coach has trained me all year. I am healthy and I am ready to run and ready to roll. It is all mental. If I am tired, I can’t tell myself I am tired. I just have to keep pushing myself. I just have to go out there and compete.
I have never run this many races in this period of time in college. I did it all the time in high school, but that is at another level so I won’t try to compare it. I did it in regional, but minus one round in less time. Right now it’s all mental and I am not going to focus on how tough it will be, but instead get myself ready mentally.
Q: Curtis, the athletes had to compete this year using the regional format. What do you think about it now that they have used that format this year?
Frye Answer: I am against it. I have always been against it, I have been for 10 years. It’s what we have and we are ready to compete with what we have. Many of us don’t feel like it is to the advanage of the athlete and for their safety. It puts them at jeporady of an injury. But everyone will compete in the same conditions and the same format. We need to drop the discussion of whether it’s good or bad and compete. It’s what we have and you are going to see an incredible track meet. You are going to see some athletes stop up that you haven’t seen before. I don’t know if we will have the greatest times, but there will be eight people finishing, that’s how they score the track meet. We can just get off that subject and move forward. We need to get our kids ready to compete and to get after it.
Q: Coach Frye, what do you think about the team race?
Frye A: There are a lot of great teams here and everyone has to hit on all cylinders. You can kind of project the meet by putting a pencil to things but you still have to run the meet. All the teams here have a good chance to win, they have the right amount of athletes. I brought 9 athletes here and if they all score 10 poitns, we score 90 and we can win. Pat Henry (LSU) brought 14 and if they all score 14, they have 140 and can win (laughter). There are no favorites, many have great athletes and great abilities. Athletes do extraordinary things when you put them under pressure and they rise to the occasion. YOu can’t underestimate what they can do under pressure. They have been trained to rise to the occasion. I don’t think anybody will be surprised by anything an athlete does at this meet – that’s why they are here. I expect big things from the athletes I brought to this meet, on the men’s and the women’s side. They have worked hard all year and this is the time to let that show.
Q: Tiffany, what do you think about being at this meet?
Tiffany A: I am really excited to be here. Everyone on our team that was supposed to be here before regionals got here, just about. We just need to go out there and do our best and do what we came here to do. I am only a sophomore, but I feel like some great things are going to happen at this meet and am really looking forward to it.
