Oregon’s best-ever high school sprinter has made her pick. On Friday morning, Lake Oswego senior Mia Brahe-Pedersen announced via social media that she will be competing collegiately for USC.

After a series of college visits, Brahe-Pedersen’s final five teams were Georgia, LSU, Oregon, Texas and USC. And after doing a round of college visits this fall, Brahe-Pedersen said the decision to join USC was pretty easy.

“I was very cautious about everything. I took in every little thing,” Brahe-Pedersen said about her recruiting journey. “I was very systematic about it all. But start to finish I think the decision was pretty clear.”

With her final lineup of schools featuring several big names, Brahe-Pedersen said she knew that she would be successful with any of the schools. But what set USC apart was knowing that she could grow as a person with the USC staff and liked working with sprint coach Karl Goodman.

“They all have titles and titles that belong to athletes of theirs,” she said. “They’re all incredible coaches. I think, ultimately the thing that kind of distinguished coach Goodman from everyone else is that, though he’s young, he’s very knowledgable and he’s definitely somebody that I can grow with, which is something that I was really looking forward to. Because I’m still growing as an athlete. I think everyone is kind of growing as we learn and he’s definitely someone that I think I can grow with for a really long time.”

Another thing that drew Brahe-Pedersen to USC is that her family has roots in the area. Her father, Christian, grew up in Southern California and both he and Brahe-Pedersen’s mother, Pam, went to college in the area.

“We have family and friends and just a lot of roots over there,” Brahe-Pedersen said. She also credited USC’s team dynamic and the chance to be in Los Angeles as parts of why she wanted to compete for the Trojans.

While she’s excited to be in Los Angeles, Brahe-Pedersen said she is sad to be leaving Oregon and the chance to spend more time at Hayward Field. Even though she has competed so many times at the historic Eugene venue, Brahe-Pedersen said she can’t get enough.

“I’ll never get sick of being at Hayward,” she said. “I think it’s impossible. The magic is just always going to be there. And I think that’s the thing that I was kind of sad about was that I have so much history at Hayward and I have so many people from around Oregon who have really been following my journey and supporting me the entire time.”

Luckily for Brahe-Pedersen, and for Oregon fans who want to see her run more, both Oregon and USC will remain in the same conference when they switch to the Big 10. With in-conference competitions likely in the cards in Eugene, and that major events like the USATF Outdoor Nationals and the upcoming Olympic Trials are often at Hayward Field, Brahe-Pedersen said Oregon track and field fans have not seen the last of her.

Going into her senior season of track and field, Brahe-Pedersen already has her names all over the state’s record book and holds the record in almost every event she competes in. She holds the state record in the 100-meter dash (11.00) seconds as well as the 200-meter dash (22.43). Both of those records previously stood for decades, as Churchill’s Margaret Johnson-Bailes ran 11.32 in the 100 and 22.95 in the 200 back in 1968. Brahe-Pedersen’s time in the 200 is second all-time in the country only to Allyson Felix, who ran 22.11 in high school.

Brahe-Pedersen is also a leg of the Lake Oswego girls relay team (along with Josie Donelson, Marina Turpen and Riley Ha) that holds the state record in the 4×400 (3:48.49) and the 4×200 (1:39.86).

In her high school career, Brahe-Pedersen is a 12-time state champion in the sprints and relays, as well as an 11-time national champion. Brahe-Pedersen also made history in July as the first high school track and field athlete to sign an NIL deal with Nike.

Over the summer, Brahe-Pedersen competed at the senior level at the USATF Outdoor Championships. She ran against former Olympians like Jenna Prandini and current world leader Sha’Carri Richardson. She qualified for the finals in both the sprint events, finishing seventh (11.08) in the 100 and eighth (22.65) in the 200.