Pac-12 Championships Preview: Men's 400-Meters Has Olympic Implications

University of Oregon's sophomore 400-meter specialist Michael Berry is the defending Pac-12 champion. His impressive winning time (44.91) got him a ticket to last year's USA Outdoor Championships.

By virtue of a fifth-place finish there (45.22), he secured a spot in the 4 X 400m relay pool in advance of the World Championships in Daegu. Then, in Jon Drummond's preparatory relay camp, Berry made a good enough impression to land a spot on the six-man relay team.

Now, Mike Berry is a world champion, and he has the medal to prove it.

And it's not just a token piece of hardware. He earned it—with a scorching semifinal leg (43.83 split)  which secured Team USA a lane in the 4 X 400m finals and an eventual gold medal.

It is just such a chain of events that gives the men's 400 meters at next week's Pac-12 Championships a decided Olympic undertone.

Barring injury or disqualification, the finals should feature three of the top-six finishers in last year's NCAA Outdoor Championships, as well as another (Bryshon Nellum) who owns the fourth-fastest time in the world this year—45.18.

If that particular finals lineup does materialize, the field will have a distinct cardinal and gold hue.

Three of those four runners form a triumvirate of quarter-mile sublimity—Nellum, Joey Hughes (45.05) and Josh Mance (45.29) all run for USC.

Nellum, a one-time high school phenom, is finally returning to championship form after more than two years of recovery from a "random" shotgun blast to his legs.

Add Stanford's Amaechi Morton (46.12) and Arizona State's William Henry (46.27) to the mix and a sub-45 race is almost guaranteed—which would bode well for an Olympic Trials berth (or three).

It should be one of the most competitive events on the track.

With the likes of LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Wariner and Florida's Tony McQuay hogging the open 400m spotlight nationally, the most likely path from the Pac-12s to an Olympic berth would come through the 4 X 4 relays.

But if you ask Mike Berry, he'd probably tell you that ain't a bad way to get there.

Pac-12 notes:

The Pac-12 Championships are in Eugene, Oregon May 11 and 12.

With the addition of 400m hurdler Reggie Wyatt, USC's 4 X 400 relay team has got to be a favorite at the NCAA Championships.

The Olympic Trials A standard is 45.30 and B standard is 46.0.

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