Feb. 9, 2002

Demetria Washington continued to show the rest of the NCAA why she is the best 400m runner as she won the event at the Second Annual Meet of Champions. Chris Steddum followed up Washington’s meet record with one of his own as he won the pole vault and Antoinette Wilks won the long jump with her meet record as well.

All told, USC won four events and put up four NCAA automatic times and six NCAA provisonal times.

The USC women finished second in the event to LSU while the USC men were fifth.

Washington ran a 52.36 – bettering her previous NCAA automatic time which puts her at No. 1 in the NCAA. Washington pulled freshman Lashinda Demus along with her as Demus ran a personal best and NCAA automatic time of 54.19 to finish third. Freshman Sheveon Stoddart was fifth at 54.70 – also an NCAA provisional time.

The three joined Tacita Bass in the USC 4x400m relay which also won the event at 3:35.49. USC currently leads the NCAA in this event.

Steddum vaulted 17′ 4 1/2 to break the meet record and win the event. He currently sits at No. 1 in the SEC. Jared Farabee was sixth at 16′ 3/4.

Wilks won the long jump with NCAA provisional mark of 20′ 8 3/4.

Andre Totton was third in the 60m dash with an NCAA provisional timeof 6.79 – a season best. The men’s 4x400m relay was third at 3:10.38. Otis Harris was fourth in the 400m at 47.35.

USC’s women went 3-4-5 in the 200m dash with Whipple running a lifetime best 23.47 – an NCAA automatic time and Bailey finishing at 23.84 and Lisa Barber finishing at 24.32 in fifth place.. Later Whipple (7.45 – third), Bailey (7.50 – fourth) and Alexis Joyce (7.62 – fifth) went 3-4-5 in the 60m.

India Odum was sixth in the shot put at 47′ 7. Rashida Abdul-Malik was fifth in the triple jump, hitting 40′ 1 1/4.