Mastalir Twins’ Decision to Lighten Load Paves Way for Watts and Taft

Two against one isn’t supposed to be fair, and it wouldn’t have been under normal circumstances Saturday night at Cerritos College during the State high school track and field championships.

But these were not normal circumstances, not with Eric Mastalir and his twin brother Mark each competing in only one race.

The Mastalir twins, seniors from Jesuit High of Sacramento, are the best prep distance runners in the state and among the top three or four in the country.

They figured to be cinch 1-2 finishers in both the 1,600 and 3,200-meter races, good for 36 points, which, most agreed, would give Jesuit the boys’ team championship. And, as it turned out, 36 points would have been more than enough.

But it was decided more than a week earlier the Mastalirs would each run only one race--Eric the 3,200, Mark the 1,600.

That decision enabled Taft High of Woodland Hills, which got an outstanding one-man performance from sophomore sprinter Quincy Watts, to win the team title with only 26 points.

While it might appear that the Mastalirs turned their backs on a State championship, Eric said: “I’m not going to regret it and I don’t think Mark will, either.” He explained that they both wanted to win individual events.

And they accomplished that goal. Eric won the 3,200 in 8:44.95, which is the best time in the country this year and ties the state hand-timed record of 8:44.9, whereas Mark won the 1,600 in 4:07.81.

Meanwhile, with a capacity crowd of 12,000 looking on, Watts ran the curve well to beat Ronald McCree of Madera in the 200 (21.03), took the Toreadors from back in the pack to a second-place finish in the 400 relay (41.58) and clocked a 10.59 in the 100 to finish second to defending state champion McCree by 2/100th of a second.

The Toreadors edged Sacramento Johnson, 26-25, while Jesuit finished third with 20 points. Katella of Anaheim and Madera tied for fourth with 18, while Hawthorne, which won the championship the three previous years, tied Muir of Pasadena and American of Fremont for sixth with 14.

As expected, Hawthorne rolled to the girls’ team title behind sprinter Tami Stiles, scoring 40 points. Hawthorne, runner-up last season to Muir, easily beat this year’s runner-up, Oakland, which finished with 22 points. Pomona, getting 20 points from double winner Janeene Vickers, and Compton, led by Princess Bennett, finished tied for third with 20 points each.

Vickers, a junior, won the 100- and 300-meter low hurdles, clocking the best time in the country in 1986 in the latter (41.32). Bennett won the 400 in 53.56 and came back to anchor the Tarbabes to a national-leading win in the 1,600 relay (3:42.31), with Hawthorne (3:43.15) moving up to No. 2.