Watts, Bultman Hope to Put Best Feats Forward Today

Judgment Day finally has arrived for Quincy Watts of Taft High and Dave Bultman of Royal.

All season long Watts and Bultman have been training with one goal in mind: to win two events at the state track and field championships.

Both have an excellent chance at achieving those goals, based on their performances during Friday’s first day of the state track and field championships at Sacramento’s Hughes Stadium.

Watts won his heats in the 100 (10.55) and 200 meters (a wind-aided 20.8) and anchored Taft’s 400-meter relay team to victory in the first heat (41.08).

Bultman qualified first in the discus (196-10) and third in the shotput (59-2). Bultman’s effort in the discus was a personal best, the farthest throw in the state this season, and ranks him sixth on the national high school list.

Watts had the fastest clocking of the day in the 100 and the second fastest in the 200. Corey Ealy of Muir ran an electronically timed 20.94 to win the second heat, which is superior to Watts’ hand-timed effort.

Watts wasn’t worried.

“I just wanted to qualify as easy as possible today,” Watts said. “I want to save as much energy as possible for tomorrow. That’s when it counts.”

If Watts, the defending state champion in the 200, can score a double victory in the sprints and anchor Taft’s 400 relay team to victory, the Toreadors could win the team title again.

The Toreadors made things harder for themselves, however, when they failed to qualify in the 1,600-meter relay. Taft placed fourth in the second heat with a 3:19.99 clocking.

Taft, which won last year’s meet with 26 points, can score a maximum of 30 points. That may not be enough to defeat Muir. Led by Ealy, the Mustangs have six qualifiers in today’s finals.

Shelton Boykin of San Fernando was another athlete who had his eyes on two state titles. He’ll have to settle for one at best.

Boykin, the double City champion, failed to qualify for today’s finals in the 110-meter high hurdles when he was inadvertently knocked off balance by Albert Pride of Grant High in Sacramento. Boykin was last in his heat.

“His arm caught my trail leg coming off the eighth hurdle and I was thrown off balance,” Boykin said. “I tried to regain my balance at the ninth hurdle but lost all my momentum when I cleared it.”

All was not lost, however, as Boykin came back to win the third heat of the 300-meter intermediate hurdles (37.85).

Boykin was so disappointed after his mishap in the high hurdles that he didn’t want to run in the intermediates.

“I was really down,” Boykin said. “At first I didn’t want to run. If it was the City meet I probably wouldn’t have. But I knew the 300s were my last chance. I had to go for it.”

That’s exactly what Travis Cooksey of Rio Mesa did in the third heat of the boys 800 meters. Cooksey, the Southern Section 4-A champion, ran 1:54.16 to win.

Robert Harris of Simi Valley qualified in three events. He placed fourth in the first heat of the 200 meters (21.4), ran the third leg of Simi Valley’s 400-meter relay team (41.99), which placed second behind Taft, and anchored Simi Valley’s 1,600 relay team to a fourth-place finish (3:19.00) in the third heat.

Reseda also qualified in the 1,600-meter relay, finishing third in the first heat in 3:18.84.

Crespi’s Russell White qualified seventh in the triple jump with a 48-4 effort. Tom Parker of Notre Dame and Jeff La Monica of Poly cleared 15 feet in the pole vault to qualify for the final. Stacy Gibson of Royal qualified sixth in the long jump with a personal best of 23-6. The mark is the longest jump in the Valley-area in the past two years.

In the girls meet, Sharon Manship and Staci Leach of Thousand Oaks led Valley-area athletes.

Manship won the third heat of the 300-meter low hurdles (42.97) and placed fifth in the triple jump with a personal best of 38-5 1/2.

Leach won the third heat of the 100-meter low hurdles (13.94).

Other girl qualifiers were Westlake’s Stacia Pollock, who tied her personal best of 5-8 in the high jump; Newbury Park’s Melissa Sutton, who placed second in the first heat of the 1,600 meters (4:55.36); Agoura’s Jenny Whelchel, who qualified second in the shotput with a personal best of 43-3 1/2, and Royal’s April Broussard, who tied for eighth in the long jump with a wind-aided 19- 1/2.