When It’s Raines, It Pours for Littlerock

Marcus Raines of Littlerock High got what he came for in the Southern Section divisional track and field championships at Cerritos College on a hot and muggy afternoon Saturday.

Raines won the boys’ Division I 110-meter high hurdles in 14.19 seconds and 300 intermediates in a school-record 37.29, and finished fifth in the long jump in a career-best 22-6 3/4 to help the Lobos total 42 points and finish third in the team standings behind Cerritos Gahr with 55 and two-time defending champion Long Beach Poly with 50.

Most importantly, he felt like the intermediate hurdler he was at the start of the season.

Raines, a muscular 6-foot-2, 195-pound junior, clocked a then-state leading 37.63 to win intermediates in the Northridge-Alemany Relays at Cal State Northridge on March 18, but that remained his best until Saturday, when his time was the second fastest in the state this year and the third best on the all-time region list.

“I knew it was coming,” Raines said. “I haven’t been able to race to my liking because some things in my life kept me from training the way I needed to. But things have changed in the last couple of weeks and it showed [Saturday].”

Raines’ effort in the intermediates was particularly impressive because he floated over several hurdles instead of snapping down off them.

“It wasn’t a great race technically,” he said. “But it’s coming together. If I can get that great technical race together, hopefully I’ll run that [sub-37-second] time.”

While Raines accounted for 22 of Littlerock’s points, senior teammate Rodney Woods scored the other 20 by winning the long jump in a wind-aided 23-11 and the triple jump in a wind-aided 47-7.

Woods, headed to Fresno State on a football scholarship, placed fifth in the triple jump in the state championships last year, but he has improved greatly in the long jump this season.

Raines, Woods, Josh Spiker of Ventura, Jon Williams and Sierra Hauser-Price of Notre Dame, Anita Siraki of Hoover and Allyson Felix of L.A. Baptist each won two individual events.

The top nine combined finishers in each event except the 3,200 qualified for the Masters Meet at Cerritos on Friday.

The top 12 in the 3,200 advanced.

Spiker, a senior, won the Division II 1,600 in a school-record 4:11.55 and the 3,200 in a season-best 9:15.31.

Defending champion Ventura totaled 40 points to tie Newport Harbor for second and finish 16 points behind Arroyo Grande.

Williams, a junior, won the Division III high hurdles in 14.43 and the intermediates in a career-best 38.16 to help Notre Dame total 46 points and finish second to Mission League-rival Loyola’s 50.

Hauser-Price, a junior, ran season bests of 11.88 in the 100 and 24.27 in the 200 to win her second consecutive titles in those events in the Division III meet. She also ran legs on the 400 relay team that placed first in a season-best 48.52 and on the 1,600 relay team that placed third in a season-best 3:57.38 to help the Knights total 50 points and finish second to Corona del Mar’s 60.

Siraki, a junior, won her second consecutive titles in the Division I 1,600 and 3,200. She ran a school-record 4:50.24 in the 1,600 to move to seventh on the all-time region list and clocked 10:31.80 in the 3,200.

Felix, a freshman, led L.A. Baptist to a runner-up finish behind La Salle in the Division IV girls’ meet by winning the 100 in a wind-aided 11.99, the 200 in 25.07 and running the anchor leg on a 400 relay team that finished third in the 400 relay in 49.43.