May 9, 2008

LOS ANGELES - USC has taken its fourth Lexus Gauntlet championship, winning the season-long battle for college sports supremacy in L.A. by a score of 67.5 to 42.5.

The Southern California Lexus Dealers will present the perpetual 150-pound, pewter-gilded trophy - recognizing USC as the 2008 Lexus Gauntlet champion - to Trojan director of athletics Mike Garrett in a presentation ceremony Tuesday (May 13) outside of Heritage Hall. The ceremony to honor the excellence of the participating student-athletes and coaching staffs in Troy's victorious rivalry campaign versus UCLA will begin at 1 p.m.

The Trojans closed out the seventh annual all-sports competition against rival UCLA by winning two of the final three Gauntlet events on Saturday (May 3). Having already wrapped up the rivalry competition by virtue of its Pac-10 men's golf co-championship, USC added 10 more points by winning two of the final three contests on Saturday. The Women of Troy captured victories in rowing and track and field - good for five points in each sport. UCLA finished the trophy chase by winning the men's half of the 76th annual USC-UCLA track and field meet at Drake Stadium.

USC won the 18-sport, year-round rivalry challenge by winning nine of the head-to-head showdowns with UCLA and splitting the available points in another four sports against its archrival. The Trojans claimed 10 points in both football and women's basketball. It marks the fourth time in the seven-year history of the competition that Troy has won the prestigious rivalry trophy and citywide bragging rights.

In the seven years of the competition, USC and UCLA have alternated winning the Lexus Gauntlet trophy. The Trojans captured the rivalry's crown jewel in 2002, 2004, 2006 and now again in 2008. The Bruins won the challenge in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

The Southern California Lexus Dealers are proud to be the leading sponsors of both UCLA and USC athletic departments as well as the exclusive title sponsor of every USC-UCLA athletic competition. For more than 80 years, these champion rivals have competed for the ultimate city-wide title of number one. Now, based on the practice of knights who challenged each other to duel by throwing their armored gauntlets to the ground, Lexus has issued the absolute challenge: the Lexus Gauntlet competition.