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Nat’l champ Watt out-ran Pac-man, Aztecs
- Updated: August 26, 2026
2026 EAST COUNTY PREP FOOTBALL
Pac-Man, a championship field, Montgomery’s kickoff team were all left chasing Mount Miguel sophomore this month
By Ramon Scott
EastCountySports.com
SPRING VALLEY — Pac-Man couldn’t catch David Watt. Neither could Montgomery’s kickoff team.
Before becoming a national hurdles champion, Watt donned an oversized blue ghost costume and raced Pac-Man along the outfield warning track at Angel Stadium.
Pac-Man never had a chance.
Watt pulled away from his pursuer, providing an entertaining preview of what would follow during a remarkable three-week stretch for the Mount Miguel sophomore.
The next challenge placed 10 hurdles between Watt and a national championship.
He gobbled them up like a row of Pac-Man dots.
Watt completed the 110-meter course in a wind-legal 14.39 seconds on Aug. 2, capturing the boys 15–16 title at the USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in nearby Norwalk.
Three weeks later, Montgomery’s kickoff coverage joined the chase.
Watt fielded a third-quarter kickoff at his 14-yard line and returned it 86 yards for a touchdown in Mount Miguel’s 42-26 season-opening victory. The score immediately restored the Matadors’ three-touchdown advantage after Montgomery had attempted to climb back into the game.
The return was an impressive introduction to Watt’s sophomore football season.
His speed, however, was hardly a new development.
Watt reaches national summit
Mount Miguel sophomore David Watt
Watt entered the Junior Olympics as a rising sophomore competing for Gods Speed Youth Track and Field Club.
His championship came over 39-inch hurdles—the same height used in California varsity boys competition—and not the lower barriers sometimes used in freshman and sophomore races.
That distinction makes his 14.39 directly comparable with standard national high-school performances.
According to MileSplit’s national database, Watt tied Michael McKenzie II of St. Thomas Aquinas for the fastest wind-legal 110-meter hurdles time recorded by a freshman during the 2026 outdoor season.
McKenzie ran 14.39 with a legal wind reading of +1.8 meters per second. Watt matched it with a +1.3 wind in the national final. No other Class of 2029 athlete recorded a faster legal mark through the conclusion of the Junior Olympics.
Watt also defeated athletes from both years of USATF’s 15–16 division, which is determined by birth year rather than school classification.
He did not reach 14.39 immediately.
Watt ran 14.93 into a slight headwind during the preliminary round, then advanced through the semifinal in a wind-aided 14.86. With the championship at stake, he lowered his time by nearly half a second.
Brody Record-Wood of GLS Speed Track Club finished second in 14.72. Kamai Umiamaka of West Georgia Elite placed third in 14.76, leaving Watt with a convincing margin of 0.33 seconds.
“I really just wanted this one,” Watt said in a postrace interview. “I worked for this one.”
More than a hurdler
The hurdles championship completed an exceptionally busy national meet for Watt.
He also advanced to the semifinals in the 100 and 200 meters and competed in the high jump. His legal 22.24 in the 200 represented another personal best.
After being eliminated from both sprint events, Watt redirected his attention toward the hurdles.
“I feel like I left it all on the track,” he said. “You can’t give up. If you lose one, then you’ve got to win the other.”
The championship continued a three-year progression across several events.
Watt improved from 11.81 in the 100 as a seventh-grader to a wind-aided 10.79 this summer. His 200 time dropped from 24.46 to a wind-legal 22.24, while his 400 improved from 57.74 to 53.39.
He also cleared 6 feet in the high jump during his freshman season.
That range should not be surprising. Watt placed third nationally in the USATF 13–14 pentathlon in 2025, accumulating 2,827 points across the hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put and 1,500 meters.
One year later, he returned to the national meet and left with an individual championship.
Mount Miguel’s latest speed threat
Watt’s emergence continues a remarkable period for Mount Miguel track and field.
Brandon Arrington won California championships in the 100 and 200 meters as a Mount Miguel sophomore and was named the Gatorade California Boys Track and Field Player of the Year.
Arrington subsequently lowered his bests to 10.21 in the 100 and 20.35 in the 200. His 200 performance broke the Arcadia Invitational record previously held by Olympic champion Noah Lyles.
That speed also helped Arrington become a five-star football prospect. He is now a freshman cornerback at Texas A&M.
Watt has not reached Arrington’s extraordinary level as a pure sprinter, and their events are substantially different. But Watt begins his sophomore year with something equally tangible for this stage of his development: a national age-group championship and a hurdles time tied for No. 1 among the country’s freshmen.
Mount Miguel’s broader track tradition is headlined by 2016 graduate Laulauga Tausaga-Collins, who won the women’s discus championship at the 2023 World Athletics Championships with a personal-best throw of 69.49 meters.
Comparisons with a world champion or an athlete of Arrington’s accomplishments would be premature. Watt still has three high-school track seasons ahead of him.
His opening football performance nevertheless demonstrated how his track ability can affect another sport.
In addition to the kickoff return, Watt rushed eight times for 48 yards and finished with 159 all-purpose yards against Montgomery.
His touchdown was one of two spectacular Mount Miguel returns. Senior Khyree Teartt recovered a fumble and advanced it nine yards before lateraling as he was being pulled toward the ground. Junior Tylan Young-Hall took the ball the remaining 80 yards, completing an 89-yard touchdown play.
The two returns covered a combined 175 yards and helped Mount Miguel deliver an emphatic opening victory despite an offseason filled with coaching changes and prominent player departures.
Whether social media eventually settles on “Electric Watt,” “Mega Watt” or neither, the sophomore is becoming increasingly difficult to overlook.
A national championship established Watt as one of the country’s leading young hurdlers. His 86-yard kickoff return showed San Diego County how that speed could translate to football.
Pac-Man already knew.
The rest of the county is trying to catch up.
