It’s a Bittersweet Victory for Taft in City Finals

Taft coach Tom Stevenson was both satisfied and upset at the same time at the conclusion of the City track and field championships Saturday at Birmingham High.

He was satisfied because his team had won its first boys championship; disappointed because they had failed to qualify for next week’s state meet in the 1600-meter relay. To be more precise, he was upset with junior Sean Roberts.

Roberts usually runs the second leg on the Taft 1600-meter relay team, however, he didn’t Saturday.

Apparently, he felt that the prom was more important than a possible state championship. Roberts showed up at there and not with a makeshift Taft squad. The top four finishers in each event qualify for the state meet. Taft finished fifth.

The relay was the only disappointment in an otherwise perfect meet for the Taft team. The Toreadors scored 52 points to the 38 of second place Dorsey. Locke finished third with 35 points and East Valley league champion Poly finished fourth with 32.

In the girls meet, Locke won its third consecutive title with 51 points. Van Nuys, behind the three-victory performance of Kelley Peacock, finished second with 42 points.

Taft sophomore Qunicy Watts won both sprint races as expected. His times of 10.62 and 21.16 were impressive considering the fact that they were run against a stiff wind. He also teamed up with Monty Gilbreath, Roberts and Curtis Hein for a 41.13 victory in the 400-meter relay. The time was a city meet record as well as a season best.

While the sophomore sensation was the leader of the Taft team, he had plenty of help from his teammates.

Jay Borick and Kevin Franklin both came through with clutch performances. Borick, a junior, won the pole vault with a personal best of 14-9 and Franklin won the high jump with a 6-7 effort.

While Taft had already secured the team championship prior to the 1600-meter relay, the Toreadors, who had run 3:17.03 last week, needed to qualify in that event in order to have a shot at winning the state title.

Cameron Hardy ran the second leg in place of Roberts but his 54 effort left the Taft team hopelessly out of it. Monty Gilbreath ran a 49.8 third leg and Watts anchored in 47.2 but it wasn’t enough as Taft clocked 3:20.18. Locke won the race in 3:17.35.

Roberts had run a 50 second leg in the semifinals so his presence in the race would have probably made a three to four second difference.

Afterwards, Hein spoke about what happened. “We tried to talk (Roberts) out of going to the prom but he was determined to go. He’s a nice guy but I can’t say that I have much respect for him right now, “ he said.

Continuing Hein said, “I don’t think he has his priorities straight.”

Neither did Stevenson. “I’m very disappointed in what he did. We’re lucky we had the meet wrapped up by the time the relay came around.”

Kelley Peacock knew exactly where her priorities were. The Van Nuys senior had won the 300-meter low hurdles and the long jump at the 1985 city meet but she wanted to improve on that performance.

She scored 36 points with victories in the 100-meter low hurdles, 300-meter low hurdles and the long jump. She also finished third in the 100-meter dash.

Her 14.13 clocking in the 100 hurdles was a season best and her 42.79 clocking in the 300 hurdles was a personal best by eight-tenths of a second. Her wind-aided 18-6 effort in the long jump was her farthest jump of the season.

Afterwards, Peacock talked about her performances. “I’m happy with my times, especially in the 300-meter low hurdles. I’ve cut almost two seconds off my best in the last few weeks.”

Jerry Gilmore of Poly was a double victor in the horizontal jumps. He won the long jump with a 22-2 effort and the triple jump with a 45-9 1/2 effort. He also placed fifth in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 39.97.

Other top performances were turned in by Kierstin Church of Granada Hills, Sheri Lawson of Kennedy, Shelton Boykin of San Fernando and Nicky Adams of Reseda.

Church won the 100 meters in 12.31 and finished second in the 200 in 25.46.

Sophomore Lawson won the 3,200 meters by over 15 seconds in clocking a season best of 11:15.31.

Mid-Valley League champion Boykin finished a close second to Walter Harris of Banning in the 110-meter high hurdles. Boykin ran 14.69 while Harris clocked 14.64.

Adams ran a personal best of 57.40 while finishing third in the 400-meter dash. It was the fastest time by a Valley-area athlete this year.