LOS ANGELES — Decades ago, Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus was dubbed the Carnegie Hall of American track and field. And for nearly a century it was indeed center stage to some of the sport’s greatest moments and its greatest stars. Rono, Lewis, Ryun, Moses, Eaton, Joyner-Kersee, Decker, Lavillenie, El Guerrouj and of course the late Steve Prefontaine all competed there, the timber holding up Hayward’s iconic East Grandstand rocking with their every step.
A year ago Nike co-founder Phil Knight, a former middle-distance runner at the college, decided historic Hayward should be leveled so he could build a shiny new stadium and another monument to himself. The House that Phil Built.
So as USC senior Kendall Ellis stood on the track waiting for the baton in the NCAA Championships 4×400-meter relay last June and the final lap of the final race at the track’s most storied ground, the Trojans needed a victory to secure their first NCAA outdoor team title since 2001, and Hayward needed a proper send off.
Ellis delivered both.
Despite a bobbled handoff and a near collision just meters into her anchor leg, despite trailing Purdue’s Jahneya Mitchell by more than two seconds with 250, then 200 meters remaining, Ellis edged Mitchell on Hayward’s very last step in one of the most dramatic comebacks in college track and field history.
It was a transcendent and much-needed moment for American track, a miracle of Lake Placid proportions contained in 50.05 fearless and mind-boggling seconds; a feat so rare and unique that like a Katelyn Ohashi floor routine, it made the nation take notice.
Like Ohashi, Ellis stuck the landing.
As the video of the race went viral, Ellis became, if not a household name, a face recognizable from malls in Florida to the USC campus with a country full of grocery stores, airport terminals, restaurants and track meets in between. Celebrities congratulated her on social media. Professors, corporate presidents and preachers used the universal message of her triumph. Who didn’t want a selfie or an autograph with Ellis? Or as she became known to those who recognized her wide smile and warm, alive eyes but couldn’t quite remember her name, Relay Girl.
So now the question is how does Relay Girl top her Hayward anchor?
“I hope a gold medal at World Championships or the Olympics will outshine me being Relay Girl,” she said, laughing.
Ellis, the American 400-meter indoor record-holder now competing for New Balance, makes her outdoor professional debut at the Mt. SAC Relays at El Camino College in Torrance on Saturday, kicking off what she expects to be a golden season and career.
After a 400 and a leg on an all-star 4×400 relay that also includes New Balance teammate and rising 400 hurdles star Sydney McLaughlin, Ellis will turn her attention to the U.S. Championships in Des Moines (July 25-28), a Diamond League season in Europe and, she hopes, the World Championships in Qatar (Sept. 27-Oct. 6).
“We’re shooting for some very fast times this year,” Ellis said. “It’s going to take 48 (seconds) to win major championships, to win Worlds, to win Olympics, so that’s what we have our eyes on. So if that’s what it takes, then that’s what we have to do. We’re not shooting for specific times. We’ve never operated like that, but if we want to win and we’ll keep shooting for the win, your times are naturally going to have to drop down to that sub-49.”
To put Ellis’ plans into perspective, consider that only one woman, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, the Olympic champion from the Bahamas, broke 49 seconds in 2018 (48.97).
Should Ellis reach the World Championships, the runner taking the blocks in Doha will be much different than the nervous wreck who competed at the 2017 Worlds in London.
Ellis finished fifth in her opening-round heat, running 52.18 and failing to advance to the semifinals. Picking up a gold medal in the 4×400 for running in the relays heats only eased some of her pain and embarrassment.
“London taught me to stop being scared,” Ellis said. “There’s no room for fear on the big stage. No room for it whatsoever because nobody else cares. They’re counting on me to take myself out of the race before I even enter it so they don’t have to. So if I’ve already lost the battle before I even step on the track, it just makes it easier for them to win. It just taught me to stop, stop being scared. Stop putting unnecessary pressure on yourself. It’s not needed. It doesn’t benefit you. Clearly, it’s detrimental to your performance.
“I think I was really nervous about it being my first major international championship, first time representing the U.S. on a stage like that, and instead of enjoying it – no one was looking for me, no one was expecting me to do big things – so I think I put pressure that didn’t exist on myself to perform well and it was crippling. It was way too much pressure. Didn’t know how to handle it and I just crumbled at the (World) championships.”
The lessons of London were evident in her Hayward comeback. Earlier in the afternoon, Ellis was the favorite in the 400 after running 49.99 at the Pac-12 Championships a month before. But she was upset by Georgia’s Lynna Irby in the final, depriving Ellis of filling the one hole in her college career’s resume – an individual 400 outdoor title.
“I expected to win,” Ellis said. “Other people expected me to win. When it didn’t happen it was very devastating and I cried for 20 minutes afterward in the pouring rain. I think I needed that disappointment to fuel me for the 4×4 and I think it was, ‘OK, you didn’t win the open 400. That sucks, but you can go out in legendary fashion.”
And she did.
With USC needing a relay win to edge Georgia for the team title by a single point, Ellis was a distant third at the top of the backstretch and still in the same position, nearly two seconds behind Purdue around the final turn with 150 meters to go.
Purdue was so far ahead as Mitchell entered the last 100 meters that Dwight Stones, the former high jump world record-holder announcing the meet for ESPN, dismissed the chances of the rest of the field catching the Boilermakers.
“There’s no way unless they drop the baton,” Stones said.
Even when Ellis began eating up the final stretch, reeling in Oregon and then closing on Purdue, Stones shouted above the delirium, “USC, not going to catch Purdue, I don’t think, oh, my goodness, oh, my goodness. Look what just happened.”
Ellis had edged Mitchell at the wire.
“People are going to remember you won the open 400 for a week afterward, maybe two weeks,” Ellis said. “But the relay leg I ran, that’s not ever going away. That’s going to be in sports history, so I’m appreciative of that that I had my own personal disappointment.”
“I redeemed myself.”
Redemption is just one of the lessons of Ellis’ triumph that resonates with audiences in college and high school classrooms, corporate board rooms and churches. Nearly a year later, Ellis continues to hear from people who said her run through that wet Willamette Valley afternoon inspired them, gave them hope or prompted introspection.
“Not everyone can relate to track and field, which I totally understand, but you can watch a comeback like that and pull something from it for your own life,” Ellis said. “Whether you’re an athlete or a teacher or an everyday person working.
“There’s a couple lessons: run your own race, everyone has their own path, their own destination, and just focus on you and worry about yourself and what you want to accomplish. Focus on that. Rewatching the video and hearing the (broadcast) ‘she’s not going to catch her, she can’t do it unless they drop it,’ (made me realize) drown out the noise. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says about you and about what your goal is. If you think you can do it, that’s all that matters. It doesn’t matter what anyone else has to say about it.”
Relay Girl remains a tourist attraction at USC, where she continues to train with Trojans head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert and assistant coach Quincy Watts, the 1992 Olympic 400 champion. Kids and parents on college tours and coeds still stop her for selfies or to recount where they were during the NCAA broadcast.
She appreciates the interest and attention, even laughs at being called Relay Girl, confident that she will ultimately be defined by even grander moments.
“It will never go away,” Ellis referring to the relay. “It will always be associated with my name. I respect that and understand that. I’m glad it put my name out there and people will continue to follow me, see what I’m doing. Then when I win Olympic gold they’re like, ‘oh, I remember her and look at her, she’s gone on to do great things.’ It wasn’t just a one-time relay leg.”
