Hargrow Heads West; Walks on at USC
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 The Blake School senior Kyndal Hargrow has committed to attend the University of Southern California located in Los Angeles, California and to walk on as a track athlete for the Trojans. USC is located in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university. USC is one of the most selective universities in the United States, admitting 25% or 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission in 2006.
The University Southern California is a member of the NCAA Division I-A Pacific Ten Conference whose roots go back more than 80 years to 1915 when its predecessor, the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), was founded. Member schools include: Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, Stanford and UCLA.
Tina Fernandes is in her seventh year as the women's sprint coach at USC. Under her guidance, USC's sprint squad has been one of the best in the nation. That fact has not gone unnoticed as Fernandes was named the 2005 West Region assistant coach of the year by the USTA. Keith Clark, Blake assistant track and field coach surveys Kyndal's talents, "Kyndal is one of Blake's most celebrated track athletes, as she has won many races over her career in the 100, 200, and 400 (including individual state titles). As a leader of the team in the last three years and captain this season, she has sacrificed her individual pursuits in 2007 to run all three sprint relays to better help the team in scoring as well as get more of her teammates to the State Championship. Kyndal has the wonderful opportunity to continue her track career in college as she will be able to train year round with one of the top collegiate track programs in the country."
Kyndal Hargrow is an incredible track athlete. She holds The Blake School record in the 100 meters, 200 meters, the 4x200 relay and the 4x400 relay. Hargrow earned her way to the Minnesota State High School Track and Field meet in 2003, 2005 and 2006 and has been crowned state champion in the 100, 200 and 400 meters.
Of her college selection Hargrow reflects, "Mr. Sachs always tells us that college is a match to be made not a prize to be won, and I think in USC, I have found my match. Aside from the beautiful weather and campus, USC also has an extremely strong school of communications (The Annenberg School of Communications), which I hope to attend. My goal is to major in broadcast journalism and become a TV news anchor."
Kyndal continues, "I am also looking forward to walking on to the USC track team this year. I think competing at the DI level will definitely be a challenge, but one that I am definitely willing and excited to take. After having such a great experience with high school track, I look forward to seeing what track at the next level will be like. In visiting USC last spring, I was able to watch some of the girls at track practice as well as see one of the coaches in action. Just from those 20 minutes of observation I could tell that not only would I be treated well as an athlete, but that the possibility to form relationships with both the coach and athletes would be a great possibility."
Kyndal Hargrow is not just a talented track and field athlete. She has served in a variety of leadership roles at The Blake School including Senior Class President. Kyndal was honored with the Michael Kim Schulman Courage Award and has also been awarded Dean's Recognition.
Read more about the University of Southern California Athletic Programs at http://usctrojans.cstv.com/.
Some information courtesy of USC Athletic Website
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