Taylor, Blue double for Tars

Chris Yemma

The usual crew was routine, but it was the little aspects that stood

out for the Newport Harbor High track and field team at Friday’s Sea

View League finals.

Junior Bo Taylor won the shot put (56 feet, 11 1/2 inches) and discus (164-2) to lead the boys to a second-place finish and junior

Whitney Blue won the 1,600 meters in a personal-record 5:01.38 and

3,200 in 10:48.72 to lead the girls to third place under the lights

at Irvine High.

But a sweep in the girls high jump, with Jessica Robson claiming

first (5-2), Jennifer Ryder taking second (4-10) and Shannon Forsythe

finishing tied for third, had Newport girls coach Eric Tweit thinking

optimistically.

“We knew we had a chance [to sweep the high jump],” Tweit said.

“For those girls to qualify for CIF [Southern Section Division II]

was really neat, especially for [Forsythe]. We expected [Robson] to

win because no one had beat her in league.”

And a narrow second-place finish in the 3,200 by Kenny Rakestraw

(9:50.87), along with second places from Trevor Theriot in the shot

put (55-7) and Kevin Williams in the discus (143-5), had Sailor boys

coach Nowell Kay pleased.

“That was a very nice race for [Rakestraw],” said Kay after the

junior was beat by just more than a second in the eight-lap race. “He

made a good move. But that was the first time [Foothill’s Josh Hayes]

had beat him.”

First-place finishes granted athletes automatic qualification to

Saturday’s CIF preliminaries at Moorpark, while select second and

third finishers also qualified, including Theriot, Williams,

Rakestraw, Forsythe and Ryder.

Sophomore Allison Stokke claimed her second consecutive league

title in the pole vault (12-6), and freshman Cassidy Gayner qualified

with second in the 300 hurdles (47.93).

Nick St. Andre was second in the 1,600 in 4:30.7 and Sean Campos

was third in the 110 high hurdles (16.19), both good for

qualification.

Junior Keith Eldridge, the defending league 200 champion, finished

second in the 100.