USC's Anna Cockrell Named To North Carolina High School Track & Field Hall of Fame

Olympian and 2021 NCAA 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles champion Anna Cockrell was named to the third class of the North Carolina Track & Field and Cross Country Hall of Fame and will be inducted on Jan. 29, 2022 in a ceremony held in Winston-Salem, N.C.  A statewide committee of 20 track and field and cross country coaches, officials and media representatives who cover the sport extensively nominated and elected the class.

Cockrell, from Providence Day School, was a 6-time Track & Field News All-American in three events (2016 - 200m, 2014-16 -100m hurdles and 2015-16 - 300m hurdles), as well as a 2-time World Junior Champion in the 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay as a high school senior and the Pan Am Champion in the 400m hurdles as a junior.  

Cockrell ranks No. 1 all-time in North Carolina history in three events: 100m hurdles (13.17), 300m hurdles (40.42) and the 400m hurdles (55.20).  She was a 16-time NCISAA state champion in the 100m (2013-16), 200m (2016), 100m hurdles (2013-16), 300m hurdles (2013-16), 4x100m (2013) and 4x400m (2014-15).

The 2021 season was Cockrell's final year running for USC and she had a spectacular season.  The 12-time All-American, represented USA at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and reached the finals of the women's 400m hurdles.  She finished third in the event at the U.S. Olympic Trials by breaking her own school record with a time of 53.70 to advance to the Tokyo Games.  

Reaching the Olympic finals capped an amazing season in which Cockrell won the NCAA 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles titles to help lead USC to its second team title in the last three seasons.  She also became just the second woman athlete to ever win the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles titles in the same season (Queen Harrison of Virginia Tech, 2010). Cockrell originally set the school 400m hurdles record with a time of 54.68 in the NCAA finals.  

The Charlotte, N.C. native also won the Pac-12 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles titles which helped lead USC to its third consecutive conference team championship.  Cockrell won her third consecutive Pac-12 400m hurdles title after taking second as a freshman and she finished in the top three all four years in the 100m hurdles at the conference meet.  

Cockrell also repeated as both CoSIDA Academic Team Member of the Year for Track & Field and Academic All-America first team.  She is the only Trojan to be named Team Member of the Year since the inception of the honor in 1996.  The four-year captain was also named the 2021 Pac-12 Woman's Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year.  Cockrell also was named the 2021 Honda Sports Award winner for Track and Field and was a 2021 Pac-12 Tom Hansen Medal winner.

Cockrell earned a Master's in Public Policy, Certificate in Public Policy Advocacy (4.00 GPA), after earning undergraduate degree in Communication with a minor in Political Science (3.98 GPA).