Newport Harbor High junior Keaton Robar is intelligent, humble and athletic, and she’ll be watching the upcoming Paris Olympic Games with a close eye, especially the women’s 800 meters.
The 800 is a long-distance sprint, considered by some coaches as the most difficult race in track and field and no doubt among the most exciting in sports. But for the 5-foot-8 Robar, whose academic interests include aerospace engineering and space sciences, she feels a sense of comfort enduring the two-lap torment.
“You embrace the pain the whole time,” said Robar, the Orange County leader in the 800 and 1,600 meters who earned her second career medal in the 800 at the CIF State Track and Field Championships May 25 at Buchanan High in Clovis, claiming third place in a close race.
“The 800 is not that appealing of a race for distance runners, because you’re going fast the whole time,” Robar added. “In cross country, there’s more of a chance to improve during those races, and it’s harder to learn how to race in the 800, but you just accept it. The 800 is a weird distance, because there’s some endurance, but you also need speed.”
The 800 is the shortest of the running races without blocks, as competitors take off and instantly crowd together in a pack. Runners are aggressive. There can be bumping and there are no cops for the traffic congestion.
Set the pace too quickly and you can burn out. Start too slowly and you can never catch up.
In the state finals, the 800 pace was different than most races.
“It was definitely an interesting race, because usually the first 200 meters you’re getting in position and making sure you get to the spot you need to be to place well,” said Robar, who was fifth in the state finals last year. “The 800 is the fastest event where they don’t put you in lanes, so it can get really crowded and really aggressive.
“In the second 200 meters, you’re holding that pace and tucking in on the curve, making sure you’re not getting pushed around and not wasting any (steps). But in the state finals it slowed down quite a bit in the first 200 meters. It was a bit slower than I thought it would be,” she said. “From there on, it kind of turned into a kicker’s race, sprinting with a lap to go, then on the back stretch with 300 meters left it really starts to hurt. With 200 meters left you’re just hoping for the best.
“I tried to catch the girl in first place (Tessa Buswell of Poway),” she added, “but she really had something left at the end. I don’t know where that came from.”
Buswell won the 800 in 2:06.51, followed by Makenna Herbst of Carlsbad (2:07.23) and Robar (2:07.40).
“When it came to the championship race, it kind of seemed like nobody wanted to take the lead, like they were scared to lose the lead and everyone was relying on other girls to take the lead,” Robar said. “At first I sat back, and then the pace accelerated on the second lap (the second 400 split was three seconds faster than the first 400, an unusual twist). I couldn’t wait for somebody to pick it up, so it was definitely one of the weirder 800 races.
“Usually my strategy is to draft off people and try to get some space,” she added, “and with about 200 meters left try giving it my all.”
Robar, who carries a 4.38 grade-point average, is passionate about running and plans to compete at the collegiate level, with no limit to her aspirations beyond college.
“I’m really lucky,” she said of interest she has sparked among colleges.
Will she be watching the Olympics this summer? “Oh, for sure,” she said. Would she like to one day compete in the Summer Games? “Oh, yeah, that would be a dream come true,” she said.
After the state finals, Newport Harbor boys and girls cross country and track and field coach Haley Bates said the first thing Robar wanted to talk about were goals for the upcoming cross-country season in the fall.
“She’s really phenomenal,” Bates said. “She has raw talent, but she’s also so determined, so focused, and so diligent when it comes to training. She’s athletic on the track and on the trails, but also she does everything she has to do outside (of competition) for her development with her times dropping and her mindset.
“She has the perfect receipt for success and truthfully I think she has a lot of untapped talent,” Bates said. “I think college coaches are going to help her develop and grow year by year for the next five, six or seven years or however long her running career lasts.”
In 2022-23, there were 1,296 high schools in the state. Bates estimated that there are about 4.5 runners doing the 800 per school, on average, taking into account large and small schools on all levels, which means there are about 5,832 of them in California.
Third in that figure is impressive.
In the athletic hotbed of Orange County, Robar was the 2024 champion in the 800 and 1,600 meters, while anchoring the Newport Harbor 4×400 relay, which was fourth at the Orange County Championships.
Robar’s personal record in the 800 is 2:07.01, accomplished at this year’s prestigious CIF Southern Section Masters Meet, in which she finished first.
Richard Dunn, a longtime sportswriter, writes the Dunn Deal column regularly for The Orange County Register’s weekly, The Coastal Current North.
Leave a Reply