USC's Carly Smith Gilbert, Quincy Watts Earn USTFCCCA National Coaching Honors
Caryl Smith Gilbert was named National Women's Coach of the Year and Quincy Watts National Women's Assistant Coach of the Year it was announced by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) today (June 15).
Smith Gilbert, who was similarly honored in 2018, was hired on June 13 by Georgia as its director of track and field, but will remain coaching USC athletes at the U.S. Olympic Trials the next few weeks.
Smith Gilbert, who completed her eighth year at USC, was named the National Women's Coach of the Year. She guided the Women of Troy to a dominant showing at the 2021 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, where they won their second national title in the past three meets with 74 points, the second most since 2003. USC was ranked in the top five all season and has the only women's program to finish in the top three in each of the last four seasons. The Trojan woman also won their third consecutive Pac-12 title this season.
Watts, in his eighth year at USC, was named the National Women's Assistant Coach of the Year. His athletes played a major role in helping the Women of Troy win their second national title in the past three meets, scoring 31 of their 74 points. Three of his athletes reached the final of the 400m and scored – Kyra Constantine (third), Nicole Yeargin (fourth) and Bailey Lear (seventh) – with all three running personal bests during the two rounds at the final site of the NCAA Championships. Anna Cockrell became just the second woman in meet history to complete the 100H-400H double (Watts coaches the intermediate hurdles, a discipline in which Cockrell broke a school record). USC's 4×400m relay team posted the second-best time in program history in a runner-up effort. During the regular season, Watts' athletes dotted the national top-10 charts and scored 52 of the team's 162.5 points in winning the team title at the Pac-12 Outdoor Championships.
Watts also won the National Men's Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year in 2018.
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