Track & Field | April 23, 2019

LOS ANGELES — The first phase of the $16-million renovation of USC's track and field facility is on schedule to be completed by the end of this spring, while funding for the second phase is actively underway.

The building on the northwest corner of Loker Stadium, which since 2001 has housed coaches offices and team locker rooms, is being transformed into enlarged locker rooms and new lounge areas for the men's and women's teams. It will be dedicated this Saturday (April 28) at the USC-UCLA dual meet that USC is hosting on Cromwell Field.

Phase two will look to replace the equipment storage building on Loker Stadium's southwest corner with a newly-constructed building that will house a team meeting room, a Hall of Fame, academic study rooms, coaches offices and locker rooms, and a track viewing balcony.

"Our new facilities will have an immediate impact on every student-athlete who comes through our track and field and cross country programs," said sixth-year USC Director of Track and Field Caryl Smith Gilbert, who led the Women of Troy to the 2018 NCAA outdoor title. "My coaching staff and I are so appreciative of the support for the project thus far – a great deal of which has come from former USC track and field athletes who are now paying it forward to the next generation of students."

Some 80 percent of the funding raised for the renovation has come from former members of the Trojan track and field teams. Former USC track and field athlete John Colich and his wife, Janine, provided the lead gift for the renovation, while Trojan track and field alumnus Joe Antunovich designed the project.

Added USC athletic director Lynn Swann: "We are grateful to the early supporters of this project, especially John and Janine Colich, and we are thrilled to be completing phase one soon. USC track and field is synonymous with excellence and these facilities will provide our student-athletes with the top resources in the nation."

Naming opportunities for phase two are available. For information, contact the Trojan Athletic Fund at (213) 740-4155 or taf@usc.edu.

The USC men's and women's track and field program is the most successful in the nation. The men have won 26 outdoor and 2 indoor NCAA team championships, while the defending NCAA champion women have won a pair of NCAA team outdoor crowns. The Trojan men have captured an unprecedented 139 NCAA outdoor and indoor individual and relay titles and the Women of Troy have added 27. USC also has had 137 track and field Olympians, male and female.

Some of the sport's most iconic athletes have competed for the Trojans, including Quincy Watts, Louis Zamperini, Bryshon Nellum, Felix Sanchez, Andre De Grasse, Bob Seagren, Charles Paddock, Mel Patton, Parry O'Brien, Jesse Williams and Dallas Long on the men's side and Angela Williams, Inger Miller, Virginia Powell, Dalilah Muhammad and Nia Ali on the women's side (Allyson Felix attended USC after turning pro). USC's most recent track stars include Michael Norman, the 2018 NCAA outdoor and indoor 400-meter champion, and Kendall Ellis, whose dramatic comeback to win the 1600-meter relay clinched the 2018 women's NCAA team title.