Stokes Comes West on a Mission, Clears Two Big Hurdles : High school track: He finishes second and proves to himself that he belongs among nation’s elite and to National Scholastic Outdoor promoters that they should have paid his travel expenses.

Marcus Stokes of Northfield Mt. Hermon (Mass.) prep school arrived at Saturday’s National Scholastic Outdoor track and field championships intent on making two points.

The first was to prove to himself that he belonged in the same field as some of the top hurdlers in the nation.

The second was to show meet promoters that they should have paid his way out to the West Coast instead of his coach having to pay it.

Stokes accomplished both when he placed second in the finals of the 110-meter high hurdles with a wind-aided time of 13.66 seconds.

Dwayne Riley of Klein Force (Tex.) High, Stokes’ future roommate at the University of Texas, won in 13.60. Drue Powell of Reseda placed fifth in 14.16.

Stokes, who placed fourth in the high hurdles and fifth in the 300 intermediates as a senior last season at Thacher High of Ojai, was granted another year of high school eligibility because he skipped a grade several years ago and because he did not turn 18 until December.

When Stokes threw up his arms in jubilation after crossing the finish line, many spectators figured that he incorrectly assumed he had won, but he was simply pleased with his performance.

“I was just so happy because I ran cleanly and I ran efficiently against a very good field,” Stokes said. “I would like to have won, but losing to my future roommate isn’t so bad. He just outleaned me at the finish.”

Stokes got off to a good start and held a comfortable lead midway through the race, but after he smacked the seventh of 10 hurdles, Riley began to reel him in.

“I didn’t feel him until it was too late,” Stokes said. “I was hoping we were going to be right next to each other after the heats, but for some reason they had us spread apart.”

In other events, Nada Kawar of Crescenta Valley won the girls’ shotput with a meet record 42 feet 5 1/4 inches and placed seventh in the discus with a throw of 124-2.

“I was expecting to go further,” Kawar said of the shot. “I mean, I threw 45 in warm-ups. But I won, so that’s cool.”

Kawar, who set a personal best of 45-9 1/2 last season, has been hampered because of injuries for most of the season, but she figures she’s ready to improve on that mark in this week’s state championships at Cerritos College.

“I don’t think I’m going to get out to 48 or 50 feet like I hoped to at the start of the season,” Kawar said. “But I think I can hit 46. The last few weeks, things have started to feel good again. I’ve started to feel like I’m not totally average.”

But many of the region’s top male performers performed well below average Saturday.

Jeremy Fischer of Camarillo, who has a personal best of 7-2 in the high jump, placed fourth at 6-9.

Andre DeSaussure of Taft, who has run 47.1 in the 400, finished eighth in 50.66.

Jesse Stern of Harvard-Westlake has cleared 16-4 in the pole vault, but he failed to clear his opening height of 15-3, and Ryan Wilson of Agoura finished 13th in the two-mile with a time of 9 minutes 42.66 seconds.