Newport Harbor’s Keaton Robar an emerging star after Arcadia Invitational
The Arcadia Invitational prides itself on drawing elite athletes to compete in each track and field event, especially for the prestigious Saturday night meet.
In awe of the spotlight and the collection of talent, Newport Harbor sophomore Keaton Robar fought nerves going into the girls’ 800-meter race. She proved up to the task.
Robar, who has been on a tear for the past month, posted her third consecutive personal record-setting performance, completing the two-lap race in two minutes 9.13 seconds to finish fifth in a race that featured the top four times in the nation this year.
“Everyone in that race is just so fast,” Robar said. “Leading up to it, it’s so nerve-racking because I’m running against the fastest people in the nation right now. I feel like to me it’s just a number, like I don’t realize how crazy this is.”
The second-year standout has yet to finish first in the event this season, though she has been shaving seconds off her lifetime best since she was the runner-up at the Irvine Invitational in 2:14.19 on March 11. She dropped her time down to 2:10.82 at the Azusa Pacific Distance Meet of Champions two weeks later.
Robar ranks first in the county, fourth in the state and 12th in the nation in the 800. The Orange County track and field championships take place Saturday at Mission Viejo High, where she could see stiff competition from JSerra’s Georgia Jeanneret, who placed sixth in 2:09.55 at Arcadia.
Newport Harbor had a host of athletes representing it in the night meet, including Natalie McCarty, the only freshman to qualify for the invitational flight in girls’ high jump.
McCarty cleared the opening height of 5 feet, 2 inches, but that was where her night ended. She flew over the bar at 5-6 in the season-opening Eagle Invitational at Santa Margarita.
Newport Harbor also had two seniors in pole vaulter Leo Davis and distance runner Kenny Wanlass compete on the boys’ side.
Davis finished in a tie for seventh after clearing 15-3, a seasonal-best mark and 2 inches shy of his personal record set at the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet last year.
Wanlass, competing in his second Arcadia Invitational, improved by 10 seconds at the meet with a time of 9:15.21 in the seeded 3,200 meters.
Fountain Valley’s Benjamin Prado, Jack Todd, Luke Dias and Diego Alonso combined to place 12th in 10:29.82 in the boys’ distance medley relay. The time bested the school record of 10:34, Fountain Valley assistant coach Steve Knowles said.
The event is broken up into legs of 1,200, 400, 800 and 1,600 meters. After completing the last mile, Alonso was met at the finish by Dias, who shared the news in an embrace.
“I wanted to tell him immediately because I knew he would be kind of dead and not immediately responsive, so I wanted to tell him because I was making sure, keeping track of the time,” Dias said. “As much as we wanted to get all the way to 10:08, the handoff is so bad. There’s so many people on the track. I got boxed in, Diego got boxed in, Ben also got boxed in. I know we still tried our hardest.”
Edison’s Alexa Sheldon was invited to compete in both the girls’ shot put and discus throw. She leads the county in the shot put with a mark of 40-8, and though she will be a favorite in the county championships, the junior is taking aim at her own school record.
“I want to break 41 [feet],” Sheldon said. “I’m 4 inches off from it, and then the main goal at the moment is to beat my school record, which is 41-11½, so that’s really the goal right now.”
The area had two boys’ triple jumpers compete in the invitational flight. Marina’s Khang Nguyen rode a career-best mark of 46-2 on his first attempt to a seventh-place finish, while Fountain Valley’s Jonathan Yu (43-10¾) did not advance to the finals.
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