This post was updated May 6 at 8:36 p.m.
Jeremy Zammit stood at the edge of the runway with the meet in his hands.
The junior was 40 meters away from either sending his team to glory in one of the year’s most anticipated matchups or walking away with a missed opportunity.
“I called for the crowd to give me a great clap, and I just went out there and gave it my all,” Zammit said.
Led by Zammit’s long jump victory, UCLA track and field upset USC’s No. 1 men’s and No. 2 women’s teams for its first sweep against its crosstown rival since 2013. Zammit’s 7.58-meter mark in the long jump clinched the men’s team’s 82-81 victory over the reigning NCAA indoor champions, while the women’s team won 92-71 to clear the Trojans by over 20 points.
“They knew they could do it, but they didn’t have any pressure to do it. I told them I just want them to have fun, come out here and be the best versions of themselves,” said coach Joanna Hayes. “We already won because of what I saw them do, how I saw them perform – that was a win. But hey, we got rewarded for it.”
Zammit’s one and only chance came in the final field event of the day, where he sat in third after his fifth attempt. Trojan Chrystn John Stevenson firmly held onto second with a 7.43-meter jump on his third attempt – a finish that would have clinched USC the meet.
“There was definitely a lot of pressure. We were down by one heading into my final jump,” Zammit said. “We needed two people to score points to win the whole thing on the men’s side.”
After fouling in his second-to-last attempt, Zammit took the lead after his sixth and final jump to set a new personal best and earn five meet-clinching points.
But after clearing the best outdoor jump of his career, Zammit limped away from the sand pit.
“I probably injured myself slightly,” Zammit said. “Sometimes, you really just go out there and give your utmost, and that’s what I did.”
Graduate student Allan Hunter, who holds the nation’s No. 9 mark in the event this year, trailed in second with a 7.49-meter jump and earned three victory-sealing points.
Five other male Bruins clinched first-place finishes, including junior Tamaal Myers who posted a 50.46 mark in the 400-meter hurdles ahead of USC’s Johnny Brackins.
“Tamaal was going to win that race no matter what. He was locked in and focused to win it,” Hayes said. “He’s ready to go way faster. I’m just excited for what they’re doing here, and I know what’s coming.”
On the women’s side, junior Naomi Johnson earned a pair of podium finishes in the 100- and 200-meter dashes after setting personal bests in both events.
Johnson won the 200-meter dash outright despite owning just the ninth fastest personal best of the field. Her 22.91 mark crushed her previous career-best by 0.11 seconds and was her first time breaking 23 seconds in the event.
“As soon as I came off the turn and I saw that I was in the front, I was like, ‘Okay, this is good,’” Johnson said. “By the time I had four steps left, I already knew I won the race, so at that point I was screaming because I was just so happy and excited that not only was I able to win, but I was able to run a fast time.”
In the 100-meter dash, Johnson walked in with the second-slowest time of the eight-person field but pulled through with an 11.28-second time to finish third overall – the only Bruin to clinch points in the event. Sophomore Taylor Snaer finished behind Johnson in both events with 23.06- and 11.3-second tallies, respectively.
Junior Annika Salz, senior Carly Corsinita and freshman Ella McGillis’ respective 1-2-3 finishes in the 3000-meter run sealed the deal for the women’s side, clinching all of the race’s points and creating a margin impossible for USC to make up.
“After the 200 (meter dash), … we already knew our 3K girls were going to sweep that, so we already knew it was secured,” Johnson said. “We still had the 4×400 (meter relays) left, but in our minds, we were like, ‘We won the meet.’”
Despite both of UCLA’s 4×400-meter relay squads falling to USC, the Bruins had already shown who owned Los Angeles before shots were fired for the final two races.
The victory on the women’s side marked its first against the Trojans in over 10 years, while the men’s team defeated its crosstown rival for the second time in three years. And while Hayes was used to taking out USC as a six-time All-American at UCLA, doing so four times in a row from 1996 to 1999, the victory marks her first over the Trojans as director of the program.
“I see a national championship coming soon, and I think this is the first step toward that,” Zammit said.
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