Sailors runner feels no pain

It’s been a tumultuous school year in long distance running for Newport Harbor senior Kenny Rakestraw.

During cross-country season, he went down with appendicitis and made a nice recovery. Then, during the Footlocker West Regional at Mount SAC, he took a nasty spill that required nine stitches in his left knee, but finished the race with blood dripping down his leg.

Thursday at the Sea View League track and field finals, Rakestraw was feeling as good as he has all year and it showed.

Competing in the league finals for the last time, Rakestraw made the most of it by qualifying in three events. After taking second place in the 1,600 meters with a CIF qualifying time of 4 minutes, 24.71 seconds, Rakestraw took first in the 3,200 at 9:51.23.

He concluded his work by running the third leg of the 4x400 relay, helping a Newport Harbor team that also consisted of Nick Nigro, Rex Nelson and Chase Nelsen qualify for CIF with a third-place time of 3:33.711.

Afterward, he was feeling just fine.

“I still have a lot of adrenaline going, I had a lot of fun out there,” Rakestraw said.

Laguna Hills’ Dan Reveles made a late push to edge Rakestraw in the 1,600 by less than a second.

“I tried to win it, but props to him, he made a great push at the end,” Rakestraw said.

Undeterred, Rakestraw went out to what he called a leisurely pace in the 3,200 before turning on the afterburners for the last lap. Rakestraw had just a two-stride lead after seven laps, but wound up beating Laguna Hills’ Phil Brown by nearly five seconds. His performance helped Newport Harbor secure third place as a team behind Aliso Niguel and Laguna Hills.

“I took it easy and saved something for the end,” said Rakestraw, who plans to run long distance as a walk-on at Cal next season. “Last year, I was second in the two-mile, so most of my focus was on winning this race.”

Rakestraw, who said he’ll forego the 1,600 in the CIF preliminaries next weekend and concentrate on the 3,200, wasn’t the only Sailors athlete to qualify for CIF in multiple events.

Senior Bo Taylor shattered the previous league mark of 178-6 in the discus with a first-place distance of 202-0, well ahead of second-place Dan Urias (153-3) of Laguna Hills.

“I didn’t have a great series in the discus, but I pulled off a 202 on my last throw,” said Taylor, whose personal best mark is 208-5.

Taylor also took first place in the shot put at 60-3.

“I was feeling pretty relaxed, I didn’t feel like there was any pressure on me,” said Taylor, whose goal is to become the CIF state champion in both events. “If all goes well, I could do it.”

Also qualifying for the Newport Harbor boys was Carson Hedrick in the high jump with a first-place mark of 6-0; and Chase Nelsen in the 400 with a first-place time of 52.31.

For the Newport Harbor girls, who also took third place, junior Jessica Robson qualified for CIF in three events. Robson took first place in the high jump with a mark of 5-2, second in the 100 hurdles with a time of 16.182 and third place in the long jump at 16-5.75.

Other CIF qualifiers for Newport Harbor included Allison Stokke, who set a Sea View League record in the pole vault with a first-place height of 13-0; Taylor Bryson, who took third in the 1,600 at 5:09.21; Whitney Blue, who finished third in the 3,200 with a time of 11:15.09; Laura Clayton with third place finishes in both the 100 hurdles and the triple jump; and Cassidy Gayner, who had a second-place time of 47.63 in the 300 hurdles.