Parker, Devine Doomed From the Start in State Meet

Tom Parker of Notre Dame High and Joe Devine of Saugus both had high hopes of winning individual titles as the 70th CIF track championships opened Friday at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

Parker’s best of 16 feet, 9 inches in the pole vault led the field coming in and he was looking forward to improving upon his runner-up finish of last year. And Devine’s best of 4 minutes, 10.40 seconds tied him for second among entrants in the 1,600 meters.

Those hopes were dashed, however, as neither came close to qualifying for today’s finals.

Parker failed to clear a height, missing three times at 14-8, and Devine false-started in the second heat.

Bryan Addison of Chatsworth was another major casualty, failing to qualify for the finals of the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, an event in which he ranked fifth.

The Chancellor senior has a best of 37.80 seconds in the event but only placed fourth in the fourth heat (39.74) before being disqualified for a trailing-leg violation.

The day was not a total loss for Addison, however, as he equaled his personal best in the 110-meter high hurdles, winning his heat in 14.44 to qualify for the final.

Sprinters Quincy Watts of Taft and Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa, who have won four state titles between them, qualified easily.

Watts won his heat of the 200 in 21.00 and anchored the 400-meter relay team to a third-place finish of 41.65 in the second heat, which qualified the Toreadors for the final by .02 seconds.

Watts’ 200 time was the second fastest of the meet and sets up a rematch in the final with Bryan Bridgewater of Washington, who won the third heat in 20.90. Bridgewater defeated the two-time defending state champion in the City Section championships at Birmingham High last week, 20.89 to 21.14.

Burnham cruised to victories in heats in the 100 meters (11.86) and 200 meters (23.98) and anchored the Spartans’ 400 relay team to a school-record 47.35, the third-fastest qualifying time.

“I’m surprised with how well we ran ,” Rio Mesa Coach Brian FitzGerald said. “We didn’t look that fast, but we ran our best time by six-tenths of a second.”

No one was more stunned by Parker’s performance than Tim Werner, his coach of the past four years.

“It’s a heartbreak,” he said. “You jump well all year and then you come here and don’t jump well and you’re through.”

It was only the second time in the past two seasons that the usually consistent Parker, who has cleared 16 feet in nine meets this year, had failed to clear a height.

Devine’s demise was even more disheartening because he didn’t get a chance to run. CIF rules state that a runner is disqualified after one false start.

“It was a judgment call,” said Steve Spraker, the Saugus distance coach. “Do you call it on the field or do you call it on an individual? Joe said he false-started, but he felt it was because someone else moved. I don’t know what happened. It’s ridiculous.”

Though Devine’s chance for a state title evaporated, he has been added to the mile field as an alternate for the Pepsi Invitational at UCLA on Sunday.

“He’s ready to run,” Spraker said. “We’ve trained all year for this weekend.”

So have Ron Martin of Chatsworth and Yomo Smith of Taft, who produced personal bests in the qualifying round of the long and triple jumps, respectively.

Martin was the second qualifier in the long jump with a 23-9 effort and Smith qualified sixth in the triple jump with a 48-6 effort, more than 2 feet farther than his previous best.

Crissy Mills of Campbell Hall, Melanie Clarke of El Camino Real and Lori Mertes of Chatsworth all cleared 5-6 to qualify for the final in the girls’ high jump. Nicole Smith of Montclair Prep (18-7 1/2), Mary Bittner of Rio Mesa (18-2) and Clarke (17-8 1/2) each qualified in the long jump.

Defending state champion Jenny Whelchel of Agoura qualified third in the shotput with a 43-2 effort.