Ashley Erasmus broke her school shot put record to place fifth and the Trojans earned eight berths to the finals during the first day of the women’s competition at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships being held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. today (June 12).
To advance to a final at the NCAA Championships, an athlete had to finish in the top two of her heat or have one of the next three fastest times.
Freshman Ashley Erasmus became the first Trojan to score at the 2025 NCAA Championships when she broke her school shot put record with a mark of 59-0.25 (17.99m) in the first round which was good for fifth overall. She also had two other throws over 58-5. Erasmus originally set the USC record with a throw of 58-5.75 (17.82m) in her first outdoor collegiate meet, bettered it to 58-10 (17.93m) at the USC-UCLA Dual Meet on May 4, then established a new standard today. She became the first USC women’s athlete to score in the shot put at nationals since former USC record-holder Brittany Mann placed third at the 2017 championships. Erasmus earned the USC women’s team four points in the team competition. Erasmus was the only freshman to reach the event final and the only athlete in the final to post a personal-best throw.
The day on the track started well for the Trojans as the women’s 4x100m relay team of senior Samirah Moody, junior transfer Dajaz DeFrand, sophomore Madison Whyte and junior Jassani Carter cruised to victory in its heat and had the fastest qualifying time to the final of 42.55. The women’s 4x100m relay final will be contested on Saturday at 6:02 p.m. USC’s women’s 4x100m relay team has not scored at nationals since winning the event title with a time of 42.88 in 2021.
The Trojans advanced three runners to the 100m dash final on Saturday at 6:52 p.m., all with PRs and USC all-time top 10 times. Moody (10.922) and DeFrand (10.924) both took second in their semifinal heats to automatically advance with a time of 10.93 to move up to tie for second on USC’s all-time 100m dash list. Freshman Brianna Selby had a PR of 11.01 (+1.5) to take third in her heat and grab the top nonautomatic qualifying spot-on time. She bettered her sixth place standing on USC’s all-time list. Moody was fifth, DeFrand sixth and Selby seventh among the qualifiers on time for the final. It will be the second career NCAA 100m final for DeFrand (8th in 2023) and the first for Moody and Selby. Carter had a time of 11.22 (+1.4) to finish 15th overall and earn second-team All-America honors.
USC also advanced three runners to the 200m final on Saturday at 7:37 p.m. DeFrand took second in her heat with a PR of 22.20 (+0.9) to automatically advance. She moved from tied for fifth to third on USC’s all-time 200m list. Whyte, who is tied for the school record in the event, won her heat with a time of 22.44 (-0.5) to automatically advance to the final. Moody had a season-best time of 22.55 (+0.7) to place fourth in her heat but had the second-fastest time among the nonautomatic qualifiers. DeFrand advanced second, Whyte fourth and Moody eighth on time to the final. Carter had a time of 22.89 (-0.5) to finish 16th overall and earn second-team All-America honors. It is DeFrand’s second NCAA 200m final (7th last season) and the first time in the final for Whyte and Moody.
The Trojans closed the day’s action by placing second in their 4x400m relay semifinal with a season-best time of 3:27.31 to automatically advance to the event final on Saturday at 8:21 p.m. The quartet of John, Carter, junior Takiya Cenci and Whyte moved to eighth on USC’s all-time 4x400m relay list.
Junior Yemi John placed fourth in her 400m semifinal and 12th overall with a time of 51.41. She ended up 0.06 seconds behind of the final qualifying time. John earned second-team All-America honors in the 400m.