BOYS’ PREVIEW : Transfers Give Taft Inside Track for Conference Championship

Although others see a potential power when they look at the Taft High track program, all Coach Mel Hein can see are the shortcomings.

“We’re weak in the hurdles,” he said.

That might be one of only a few of Taft’s weaknesses. The team lacks depth in all individual events except the distance races, but the Toreadors, as Kennedy Coach Warren Farlow put it, “are going to be a powerhouse.”

Taft might not be as strong as it was during the era of Quincy Watts, a much-heralded sprinter who helped the Toreadors dash off with the 1986 state title and consecutive City Section championships in ’86 and ‘87, but it should run away with the Northwest Valley Conference championship.

“This year we have sprinters like we didn’t last year,” Hein said, “and that makes a relay team which will score you a lot of points.”

Ruben Benitez, a senior transfer from Trona High, timed 48.9 for 400 meters last year in qualifying for the Southern Section 1-A Division final.

Another addition is Irving Carter, a senior from Antelope Valley High who will run a leg on the 400-meter relay and compete in the horizontal jumps. He already has bounded 43 feet, eight inches in the triple jump.

Taft’s 400 relay team of Cornell Hill, Carter, Clint Stokes and Darren Lemontree timed 43.8 seconds in a nonconference meet last month. Hill impressed Hein when he cleared 6-4 in the high jump and leaped 20-5 in the long jump without any practice.

“I don’t know if I’m going to mess him up by having him practice,” Hein joked.

Taft, which placed third in the conference last year, lost pole vaulters Greg Sheets and Rejesh Chauhan to graduation, but shotputter Greg Bernard leads the team’s field event athletes. Bernard, an All-Valley football player whose best in the shotput last year was 52-4, placed second in the ’89 City finals.

Pole vaulter Josh Cook competed in the shadows of Sheets (15-1) and Chauhan (13-9) last year. His best was 11-6, but the senior has cleared 12 feet in practice and he could reach the 13-foot range, Hein said.

Members of Taft’s City championship cross-country team give the Toreadors a strong distance group. Junior Brian Godsey clocked 4:31.71 for 1,600 meters last year and helped the Toreadors’ cross-country team to the City title with a fifth-place individual finish.

Senior David Rodriguez and juniors Kipp Ortenberger and Torino Carr provide depth in the longer races. Sophomore Mike Krentzin, Taft’s No. 5 runner in the City cross-country finals, is recovering from a stress fracture that forced him to miss the state Division I championship.

Individuals to watch:

Obed Aguirre (San Fernando): Aguirre placed third in 9:17.87 in the City 3,200-meter final last year as a junior and is a favorite to win the title this year. He also clocked 4:26.35 in the 1,600. In November, he won the City cross-country championship and placed seventh in the state Division I meet.

Howard Blackwell (Hart): The senior rushed for more than 1,200 yards and scored 24 touchdowns for the Indians in the fall from his tailback position, and he returns with a 43-0 mark in the triple jump. He bounded 42-6 in Hart’s opening meet against rival Canyon.

Jerome Casey (Sylmar): Casey qualified for the City final in the 100 last year but misunderstood that the meet would be held despite the teachers’ strike against Los Angeles Unifed School District and missed the race.

The Spartan senior, who rushed for 1,447 yards in the fall and has committed to USC, timed 10.9 for the 100. His best in the long jump is 22-6.

Bryan Dameworth (Agoura): The Charger senior claimed an unprecedented third state Division I cross-country title in November but has yet to win a state championship on the track.

Dameworth, the 1989 Kinney national cross-country champion, returns with a 9:00.27 mark in the 3,200 and will try to improve on a second-place finish in last year’s state final.

At the Times/Eagle Indoor Games at the Forum in February, Dameworth ran a converted 4:11.6 mark for 1,600 meters.

Brian Gastelum (Birmingham): Gastelum, second in the 1,600 in the 1989 City finals as a junior, will renew his rivalry with defending champion Danny Jordan of Venice. Gastelum has recorded a 4:17.29 mark at that distance. He finished second to Aguirre in last fall’s cross-country finals.

Gabe Higa (Quartz Hill): The defending 4-A champion in the triple jump returns as the Valley’s No. 1 jumper. He placed second in last spring’s Southern Section Master’s Meet with a wind-aided 49-9 1/4 mark and finished eighth in the triple jump in the state finals.

Mike Lindsay (Thousand Oaks): Sixth in the 4-A 300-meter intermediate hurdles last year, Lindsay timed 39.0 for the event as a junior and heads Valley returnees this season. A 22-6 long jumper last year, Lindsay finished ninth in the 4-A final. He has also timed 15.3 for the 110-meter high hurdles.

Kent Richter (Oak Park): Academic ineligibility forced Richter to miss the Southern Section 1-A championships last May, but the senior returns as the No. 1 400-meter runner in the Valley with a 48.68 mark.

He also has timed 11.22 and 22.7 in the 100 and 200, respectively.

Tim Ross (Royal): He is an All-Ventura County defensive back and he returns with bests of 6-6 1/2 in the high jump and 42-11 in the triple jump. Last year as a sophomore, Ross won Marmonte League titles in both events and placed sixth in the high jump at the 4-A championships.

Abe Valdez (Camarillo): Valdez placed seventh in the 3,200 in 9:07.0 last spring and led the Scorpions’ cross-country team to the state Division I crown with a fourth-place individual finish. Valdez, a senior, finished second to Dameworth by two-tenths of a second in the 3,200 at the Ventura County championships in 1989.

Patrick Van Scoy (Rio Mesa): Van Scoy led Valley athletes in the shotput and discus last year as a sophomore with throws of 55-1 1/2 and 165-0, respectively. He placed fifth in the 3-A shotput final and is the defending Ventura County champion in the discus.