Taft’s Bussey Runs With Fast Company

Blaine Bussey of Taft High moved into select company when he clocked 57.3 seconds to win the 500-yard run in the San Diego Indoor Games at the San Diego Sports Arena on Saturday.

But the 6-foot-3 senior will be looking for bigger things when the outdoor season begins in March.

Bussey moved into a three-way tie for second place on the all-time national list in the 500, but he has his sights on a 45.50 clocking in the 400 meters outdoors.

A time of 45.50 would be 1.7 seconds faster than Bussey’s state-leading mark from last year, cut more than a second off the region record of 46.67 set by Taft’s Quincy Watts in 1988, and move him into 10th place on the all-time national list.

“It’s real important to me to break his [school] record,” Bussey said of Watts, the 1992 Olympic 400 champion. “I still remember getting his autograph when I was a member of the West Valley Eagles track team. I didn’t know back then that he had gone to Taft.”

Although Bussey’s 57.3 clocking tied him for second place on the all-time national list with Tony Darden of Norristown, Pa., and Michael Granville of Bell Gardens, he is confident of running faster in the L.A. Invitational at the Sports Arena on Feb. 13.

“I felt like I was strong, but I could have run a little better,” Bussey said of the race that earned him athlete-of-the-meet honors. “I could have gone out a little bit faster.”

A lackluster first 200 doomed Bussey to a third-place finish in the 400 in the state championships last year, but he vows that won’t happen again.

“I’m trying to work on going out harder,” he said. “I’m trying to get out well so that the other guys have to come and get me instead of me having to get them.”