USC COACH Quincy Watts calls Garrett Kaalund an historian of track & field. That was evident when triple jumper Will Claye, a 9-time global medalist, recently visited campus and spoke to the Trojans.
Kaalund is a sprinter but lingered around Claye, trying to learn what it takes to have a career like his.
“It wasn’t so much about the jumping. He was just looking at greatness, right?” Watts says. “Maybe something Will Claye says will resonate with him.”
Kaalund is not merely looking at it. He is aiming for it.
His stated goal is to become the fourth ever to run sub-10 seconds for 100 meters, sub-20 for 200 and sub-44 for 400. Michael Norman, also of USC, Fred Kerley and Wayde van Niekerk are the only three to have done so.
After Kaalund’s historic 200 at the NCAA Indoor Championships, such ambition became more plausible.
His time of 19.95 was an American and Collegiate Record, and the fastest indoor 200 of this century. The World Record of 19.92 by Namibia’s Frankie Fredericks has stood since 1996.
“I’m a little miffed I didn’t get it,” Kaalund acknowledges.
The previous AR/CR was the 20.02 burned by Houston’s Elijah Hall at the 2018 NCAAs.
“This is another stratosphere,” Watts says. “When you’re running 19.9, when you’re running sub-20 indoors. This is a special, special human being.”
The 22-year-old Kaalund, 5-9 and 145 (1.75/66), has emerged as a genuine contender to make the U.S. team for the 2028 Olympic Games.
Watts, a USC graduate himself, won Olympic 400 gold in 1992. Plus, a landmark in the Trojan neighborhood reinforces Games thoughts. The USC campus is next to the Los Angeles Coliseum — the stadium set to showcase Olympic track & field for a third time little more than 2 years from now. So yes, Kaalund says, LA 28 is in the back of his mind.
The Olympics weren’t necessarily in mind when he was a hyper child growing up in San Antonio. His mother, Anne, sought an outlet for her son.
“We just needed to channel that energy, and something that was also productive,” she says.
Little Garrett became a black belt in taekwondo — at age 6. His mother placed him into basketball and T-ball. Finally, track.
“And she was like, ‘he’s pretty fast.’ So we kept going with it,” Kaalund remembers.
The mother coached her son until he was 12. Since then, he has worked with a San Antonio trainer, Tony Lightner.
Kaalund attended Antonian Prep, which participates in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools rather than in the UIL meet that produces so many Texas stars. He identified a couple of high school races as turning points.
The first, following his junior season, was when he finished 2nd in the 400 in 46.88 at Nike nationals. The second, as a senior, was when he lowered his 200 time to 20.66 at the Texas Meet of Champions, winning by nearly a full second.
“I said, ‘OK, I know I can do something,’” he says.
That MOC time placed Kaalund No. 5 on the ’22 HS list led by Jordan Anthony (20.35). That Jordan Anthony, the NCAA 100 champion for Arkansas, No. 8 U.S. Ranker and Bowerman Award winner in ’25. Kaalund now sprints in the ’26 Bowerman mix.
For college, Kaalund was recruited to Nebraska by sprint coach Brenton Emanuel, and he continued to drop times. In ’24, he improved to 20.24 at the West Regional — also at Fayetteville — but missed reaching the NCAA final despite a 20.38 in the heats.
“I knew, all right, I moved to a new level now,” he says.
Kaalund was 2nd in a heat at the ’24 Olympic Trials in 20.28 but did not finish his semifinal.
He transferred when Emanuel left Nebraska to join USC’s staff. Watts liked the sprinter’s range but conceded:
“We had no idea that we would see rare, rare talent in Garrett. He’s always been different. He’s a winner. He doesn’t have any distractions off the track. He loves track.”
And loves USC, where he says everyone “is world-class in their own way.” Kaalund has dyed his braids, which even resemble USC’s cardinal color,
Last year he finished 4th at indoor NCAAs, helping USC win its first team title since 1972. Outdoors, his range was manifested over an 8-week span.
He ran 100 meters in 9.93w (+2.4) in mid-April, won the 400 in 44.73 in a dual meet against UCLA on May 4, ran a 200 in 19.85 at the West Regional. Two weeks later, he was 3rd in the NCAA 200 in 19.96, beating the 4th-place Anthony.
Kaalund wants to run them all — 100, 200, 400 — again this spring. Yet Watts says the Trojans must manage him carefully.
“Just because he can do everything, we don’t want to take advantage of that,” Watts says. “We want to be smart with that. Because it’s a long indoor or outdoor season.”
As Kaalund’s times decreased, confidence increased.
He clocked 20.12 at Albuquerque’s 5000-foot altitude and won the Big 10 in 20.06 on Indianapolis’ new oval at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. He won what he called a “rough” NCAA heat in 20.11, beating Arkansas’ Jelani Walker by 0.01.
Then: 19.95.
“I’m stronger. So I feel I can run much faster,” he says.
If he can run sub-20 indoors, he estimates, he can run in the 19.60s outdoors. The Collegiate Record, 19.69 by Florida State’s Walter Dix, has stood since 2007.
Away from the track, Kaalund says, he writes fiction. On the track, the facts are creating a compelling narrative.
