Hard to find fault with Taylor’s throw

NORWALK ? Newport Harbor High senior Bo Taylor didn’t like getting called for a foot fault during the discus throw at Friday’s CIF State Track and Field Preliminaries at Cerritos College.

He knew he’d nailed a distance of more than 200 feet on the throw. Taylor protested the judges’ ruling, to no avail. Since it didn’t count, Taylor harnessed his displeasure and let loose in the third flight.

His ensuing first-place hurl of 213 feet, 7 inches was four inches off the state mark of 213-11 set by Huntington Beach High’s Scott Moser in 1997.

Taylor’s mark was the best ever at a CIF State Track and Field Championship meet, shattering the mark of 206-5 set by Daniel Schaerer of Bishop’s School in 2004.

“Yeah, it fired me up,” Taylor said. “I was upset because I knew I’d thrown it over 200 on my second throw. I really wanted to do it again.”

Taylor still has his eye on the state record of 213-11, but just winning state today will be no easy feat. After Taylor made his distance of 213-7, San Diego Morse High’s Darius Savage threw the discus 212-1. Savage’s distance goes down as third best in state history.

“It’s going to be a battle between me and Darius,” Taylor said. “And also Nick [Robinson].”

Taylor also took third place in the shot put with a distance of 59 feet. Savage took first place at 63-1 1/2 and Robinson finished second at 60-6 3/4 . Taylor nailed a 59 on his third throw to qualify for the state finals.

“Ultimately, I’d like to win the shot put, too,” Taylor said. “But it’ll be difficult. I just have to keep my head on it.”

In other boys’ action, Sage Hill’s Zach Chandy took sixth in the 200 meters with a time of 21.45 to qualify for today’s finals.

Every Newport-Mesa athlete in the preliminaries qualified for today’s finals.

On the girls’ side, the situation was unique in that if you blinked, you might have missed it. Costa Mesa’s Jasmin Day, competing in the high jump ? where she took second place in the state finals last year, needed just one leap to qualify for the finals. Day skipped the initial height of 5-3 and cleared her first jump, 5-5, on her first try. The effort put her in a first-place tie and she was done for the day.

“One jump, easy day,” Day said. “But I feel it was a good warmup for [today]. I feel like I’m ready to clear six feet.”

Newport Harbor junior Allison Stokke also did her work quickly. Stokke, who won the state pole vault title as a freshman, only needed one vault per height on Friday. She cleared the heights of 11-3, 11-9 and 12-3 in one try each to take first place overall.

Corona del Mar’s Annie St. Geme won her heat in the 1,600 with a time of 4:51.13, good for third overall. St. Geme got out to a big lead then was able to cruise home.

“It was a nice, comfortable day for her,” Corona del Mar Coach Bill Sumner said. “She got to jog in the last 300 meters. She’s saving it for [today].”

There was no preliminary round in the 3,200, so St. Geme and teammate Shelby Buckley went straight to today’s finals. It made for a leisurely day for St. Geme, who is used to running up to four events.

“Now I can go into [today] refreshed and pretend like I haven’t raced in a week,” St. Geme said.dpt.03-track-4-CPhotoInfoCV1RKGA220060603j09l6mncMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Newport Harbor’s Allison Stokke pushes the pole away as she clears the bar in the girls’ pole vault Friday at the CIF state track and field championships.