RUNNING / JOHN ORTEGA : Injuries Pull Down Watts and Burnham

It’s one of the biggest “ifs” in discussions of elite high school sprinters’ futures.

If he or she can stay healthy, the theory goes, he or she can become one of the next great U. S. sprinters.

The theory is simple, but reality often is much more complicated.

Just ask USC sophomore Quincy Watts and UCLA freshman Angela Burnham.

Watts won three state titles during his career at Taft High (1986-88) and Burnham was a five-time champion at Rio Mesa from 1986-89.

Watts was the No. 1-ranked high school male sprinter in the country in the 100 and the 200 meters in 1987, and Burnham was the top female sprinter in 1988 and ’89.

Both, however, failed to qualify for the finals of the 200 at last week’s NCAA Division I Championships at Duke University.

Burnham, Track & Field News’ Female High School Athlete of the Year in ’88 and ‘89, placed second (23.75 seconds) in her qualifying heat Wednesday, but finished fifth (23.56) in the second semifinal Friday and missed advancing to Saturday’s finals by .03 seconds.

Watts placed second in 20.76 in his qualifying heat, but pulled up lame in the semifinals with an injury to his right hamstring.

The injury was the same as one Watts suffered earlier this year and marked the third consecutive season that he has suffered a hamstring injury. The previous two were in his left leg.

“(Quincy) is in great shape,” his father Rufus said Tuesday. “He’s been ready to run fast all year, but he’s had a hard time staying healthy.”

Having run 10.30 in the 100 and 20.50 in the 200 as a high school junior, Watts ran 10.48 and 20.67 as a senior, and 10.46 and 20.67 during an abbreviated freshman season at USC.

He strained his right hamstring during a meet in April, but came back to time 20.66 at the Occidental Invitational on May 12, and placed third in the Pacific 10 Conference Championships in Seattle eight days later.

Burnham, who ran legs on UCLA’s 400- and 1,600-meter relays at the NCAAs, finished second in both the 100 and the 200 at the Pac-10 meet, but has had tender hamstrings much of the season.

While her times (11.60 in the 100, 23.55 in the 200 and 55.23 in the 400) have been very good for a college freshman, they have fallen short of her personal bests of 11.28, 23.45 and 54.09.

Something to prove: For those who followed his high school career, Brian Gastelum’s performance in the state championships at Cerritos College on Saturday night was all too familiar.

Twenty-four hours after finishing first in the second qualifying heat of the 1,600 meters in 4:12.82, the Birmingham senior finished ninth--and last--in the final in 4:26.94.

Having lowered his personal best to 4:09.87 this season, Gastelum was picked to finish third by most experts, but he faded badly in the last 950 meters of the race when Louie Quintana of Arroyo Grande forced the pace, attempting to weaken the kick of Carpinteria’s Coley Candaele.

Although Quintana failed to defeat the favored Candaele, he did finish second as expected.

Gastelum, meanwhile, has had trouble performing up to par in his biggest races.

As a junior, he finished second in the 1,600 at the City Section championships, but was eliminated in the heats of the state meet. He was favored to win the City cross-country title last fall, but was upset by Obed Aguirre of San Fernando.

Gastelum seemed to have rid himself of the big-meet blues with second-place finishes at the Pasadena Games in March and the Arcadia Invitational in April, but on Saturday night, he reverted to his old form.

Upcoming events: Bryan Dameworth of Agoura High, Eliazar Herrera of Hoover and Aguirre will run in the Golden West Invitational at Sacramento’s Hughes Stadium on Saturday.

Dameworth, who won the 3,200 meters in a nation-leading time of 8:53.26 at the state meet, will run the mile against a field that includes Andy Maris of White River High (Buckley, Wash.), while Herrera and Aguirre will compete in the 3,000 meters.

Aguirre, fourth in the 3,200 in the state meet behind Dameworth, Herrera and James Menon of San Luis Obispo, was added to the Golden West field after Camarillo’s Abe Valdez withdrew with an injured left knee Tuesday.

“(Obed) is really excited about it,” San Fernando Coach Ken Kohon said. “(Golden West) will give him another chance to run against the big boys.”

Valdez, seventh in the 3,200 at the 1989 state meet and sixth this year, had complained about the injury last week, according to Camarillo Coach Mike Smith, and he aggravated it when he knocked knees with Angel Martinez of San Gabriel during Saturday’s race.

“It’s not an excuse for the way he ran,” Smith said. “But Abe just doesn’t feel like he can race on it this week.”

Add Aguirre: If the San Fernando senior is as undertrained as Kohon claims, look for him to make a huge improvement--most likely at the junior college level--with increased training next season.

According to Kohon, Aguirre has run an average of 20-25 miles a week this season.

“What he did was high quality,” Kohon admitted. “But I’ll bet he hasn’t had more than one or two 30-mile weeks all season. If he just adds morning runs to his weekly workouts, he’ll improve drastically.”

Despite his low mileage, Aguirre has run personal bests of 4:15.17 in the 1,600 and 9:01.11 in the 3,200 this season. He has won the City Section cross-country title and the 3,200 track title during his senior campaign.

Good news, bad news: Valley-area athletes won an impressive four events--equaling the second-highest total in the past five years--at the state meet, yet the 67 points scored by local athletes was the fewest in the last five state meets.

Based on a 10-8-6-4-2-1 scoring system, local athletes scored 96 1/2 points last year, 82 1/2 in 1988, 112 in 1987, and 128 in 1986.

The most titles won by local athletes during that stretch was seven in 1987, when Watts (100 and 200 meters) and Royal senior Dave Bultman (shotput and discus) were double winners.

Positive figures: Track and field’s popularity in the United States has dropped dramatically in the last decade, but the attendance figures for the state meet were very encouraging.

The paid attendance for Friday night’s preliminaries was 8,350 and increased to 10,470 for Saturday night’s finals.

It will be interesting to see how those figures compare with The Athletics Congress Championships, which will be held at Cerritos, June 14-16.