Daily Pilot Girls’ Cross-Country Dream Team: Newport Harbor’s Keaton Robar kept rising right into record book
Keaton Robar wasn’t exactly an unknown commodity early in her cross-country career.
She was faring well in grade-level races as a freshman and moving up the ranks in the Surf League as a sophomore, but it wasn’t until several months later that it seemingly clicked.
Robar dropped a low time of 2 minutes 9.13 seconds in the 800 meters of the Arcadia Invitational on April 7, 2023, and that was the moment that she supposes she realized “I’m kind of good at this.”
“That was something I thought was beyond me, at that point,” Robar said of making the invitational race that year. “Cross-country, I wasn’t at that level yet, and I was improving a lot, just as I was in the 800, but I was still yet to get to that level. I made state for the 800 before I made state for cross-country, and they kind of followed each other.”
Robar came back the next year and let that confidence permeate through her performance. As a junior, she was the runner-up in the girls’ sweepstakes of the Orange County championships. That season concluded with a fourth-place finish in the Division II race of the CIF State cross-country championships.
Things were definitely pointing up for Robar, and although she admitted to being aware of the window of opportunity closing as a senior, they stayed that way this fall.
Robar, a Michigan commit for cross-country and track and field, now stands alone in the Newport Harbor record book for 3-mile races. She clocked in at 16:28.5 in the girls’ sweepstakes race of the Woodbridge Classic at the Great Park in Irvine, besting the standard of 16:33.0 established by Paige Tennison in the same meet when it was held at Estancia High in 2012.
“Woodbridge wasn’t my best race,” said Robar, who is the Daily Pilot Girls’ Cross-Country Athlete of the Year. “I didn’t feel the best, so honestly, crossing the finish line, it was more relieving to me that I broke the school record because that was a goal I had since junior year, and that was something that I definitely wanted to do before my time ended here.
“Senior year being my last season is something I’ve never experienced before, having to leave high school cross-country in the past now and move on, it was something totally foreign to me.”
That brought peace of mind to Robar, who had also claimed her third grade-level race win in as many starts at the Laguna Hills Invitational the week before.
Robar finished in the top 10 in six out of seven starts from that point onward, placing fifth in the county championships and earning runner-up showings in the Brea Olinda Invitational, the Sunset League finals, and the CIF Southern Section Division 2 final. The run was capped off with an eighth-place finish (17:49.1, a personal record on a 5K course) in the Division II race of her second state appearance.
While Newport Harbor missed out on qualifying for the state meet by 11 points in the CIF finals, the Sailors were highly motivated to experience team success.
In the Sunset League finals, the trio of Marley McCullough, Robar and Natalie McCarty were the first to cross the finish line — in that order — propelling Newport Harbor to the team title. They were joined by Sophia Garcia-Ramirez and Katherine Janda in the scoring five.
Newport Harbor coach Haley Bates said that the senior group that has been there since she joined the program helped her create a culture of helping others reach their potential.
“They really did just fully embrace everything with their work ethic and leading by example and with their voice,” Bates said. “It’s helped them grow so much, and I see that with all of them, but [Robar] was really the take-charge [leader] of the senior group to help do that, and it makes everybody want to be their best.”
Bates added that Robar has become one of those athletes that “in 30 years, you’re going to be talking about them.”
“That was a moment I looked forward to as a team,” Robar said of the league title. “Natalie [and I] became really close. Obviously, I’m really close with Marley. We’re all like super-close friends, and that was just really cool to see it actually play out. We had been trying to get [McCarty] to join for over a year, so it was cool to see when we finally had her on the team, and we’re finally building our team. To see us making CIF finals, too, was crazy.”
COACH OF THE YEAR
Neil Massaro
Pacifica Christian
Despite the graduation of the reigning CIF Division 5 individual champion in Ella Murray, the Tritons found their way back to the state meet. Pacifica Christian left no doubt that it still belonged, placing fourth in its divisional final in the section championships. The Tritons also captured the San Joaquin League title, edging Samueli Academy by a count of 35-39. Lila Glidewell, Ashley Gundlach and Akyli Maze secured three of the top four spots in the league final to make the difference. This was Massaro’s first season as head coach of the program.
FIRST TEAM
Lila Glidewell
Pacifica Christian | Jr.
The Tritons could not replace Ella Murray, the CIF champion that used to run at the front of their pack, but Glidewell took the lead and did a fine job. Glidewell came across the finish line first with a lifetime-best time of 18:34.4 in the San Joaquin League finals, leading her team to the title. The junior also paced the Tritons’ state-qualifying performance in the CIF finals, placing 12th in 20:10.
Hayden Joseph
Laguna Beach | Jr.
Laguna Beach won the Pacific Hills League title, 31-40, over St. Margaret’s with Joseph leading a group of four successive Breakers to claim the fourth through seventh positions in the race. Joseph, who continued to set the pace for the Breakers in the postseason, also broke 18 minutes for the first time as a junior, clocking in at 17:57.3 at the Woodbridge Classic.
Natalie McCarty
Newport Harbor | Jr.
McCarty had already made a name for herself as a multi-event standout for the Sailors in track and field, for which she was a state qualifier in the high jump and the 300-meter hurdles in the spring. In her first cross-country season, McCarty made the Sailors a runaway winner of the team title in the Sunset League. McCarty filled out an all-Newport Harbor top three with McCullough and Robar. She posted a seasonal-best time of 17:34 in the Woodbridge Classic.
Casey McConn
Huntington Beach | Sr.
McConn headed a Huntington Beach team that finished second to Newport Harbor, 45-68, in the Sunset League finals. The senior led the Oilers in placing seventh in that race. In the Division 1 preliminaries, it was McConn once again who paced her team with a 10th-place finish. Unfortunately for the Oilers, they were the first team out in a heat sending the top four teams on to the section finals. Emma Siok and McConn finished second and third, respectively, in leading the Oilers to the medium schools crown at the Orange County championships.
Marley McCullough
Newport Harbor | Sr.
McCullough had a decorated season that was highlighted by winning the Sunset League title, her second individual league championship overall after conquering the Surf League as a junior. She also claimed victory at the Brea Olinda Invitational, and she was second only to Robar in a grade-level race at the Laguna Hills Invitational. McCullough placed ninth (18:02) in the Division 2 final, going on to finish 14th (18:01.4) in the Division II race at the state meet.
Aya Roque
Fountain Valley | Sr.
A frontrunner for the Barons the past two seasons, Roque went under 18 minutes for the first time when she ran 17:57.1 at the Woodbridge Classic. Roque placed sixth in the Sunset League finals, and she built off that by placing 15th in 19:36.7 in her heat of the Division 1 preliminaries, the best performance among her seven career races run among the hills on the Mt. San Antonio College course.
Emilie Steinman
Corona del Mar | So.
Steinman broke through to her first state meet as an individual when she qualified with a 14th-place showing in 18:54.5 in the Division 4 final at Mt. San Antonio College. The sophomore won the medium schools race of the Orange County championships in 18:27.4, and she was the next to come in behind Newport Harbor’s heralded block of three in the Sunset League finals.
SECOND TEAM
Julieta Colin, Costa Mesa, Sr.
Ashley Gundlach, Pacifica Christian, Sr.
Hayleigh Martino, Laguna Beach, So.
Karina Pitz, Laguna Beach, Jr.
Emma Siok, Huntington Beach, Jr.
Avery Williams, Edison, So.
Sally Woodruff, Marina, Jr.
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