Daily Pilot High School Athlete of the Week:

Just before competing in the 300-meter hurdles in a dual meet at Laguna Beach last week, Costa Mesa High senior Kaitlin Yamamoto felt the nerves creeping in.

The standout track and field athlete for the Mustangs could also feel the pain burning in her hip and back, aches she’s had to deal with the entire season. The thought, or rather nightmare, of finishing in 50 seconds plagued her brain.

For the majority of the season, Yamamoto had been wanting to break down that wall of 50, to cross the finish line in a number that doesn’t begin with 5.

Victories usually came for Yamamoto, as she won three or sometimes four events, racking up points for Costa Mesa, which has won four straight league titles. But the personal record would be nice in her final regular-season dual meet.

Leaping over one hurdle and the next, Yamamoto felt the pain again and again, but she pressed on. This was a special race and in the end a special time, a personal best.

She won the 300 hurdles in 49.4 seconds.

Yamamoto also won the pole vault and the 100 hurdles against the Breakers to help the Costa Mesa girls’ team finish the regular season undefeated in the Orange Coast League.

“When I was done with the race I heard my time and I just screamed,” Yamamoto said. “It’s the best feeling to get a PR. It’s just great to reach your goals and to know that your hard work paid off. It’s a lot of hard work, being the first one there and the last to leave at practices.”

Yamamoto saw the work pay off some more Thursday, when she was named Female Athlete of the Meet at the OCL Championships at Laguna Beach. She produced another personal record in the 300 hurdles, winning in 48.07 seconds. She also finished second in the 100 hurdles in 17.75, just behind Laguna Beach’s Lauren Montgomery, who won in 17.71.

Yamamoto was part of the 4x400 relay team that won. And she also captured an OCL individual title in the pole vault Wednesday after clearing nine feet. Her personal record is 9-1, which is the school record.

She helped the Mustangs finish second, as Laguna Beach won the OCL title. Costa Mesa had won the past three.

This season has still been memorable for Yamamoto. At times, she competed or practiced in less-than-ideal situations. Coaches would have probably liked to have seen her sit out some during training sessions because of the pain she experienced in her hip and back.

“I don’t like to call them anything,” Yamamoto says of the nagging pains. “My coaches call them injuries. I constantly fight with them on it. I don’t like to miss practices. I usually push through it. I like being on the team and putting in the effort like everyone else does.

“Track is my passion. I love running. Soon, I want to start running marathons and training for marathons. It’s just something I love to do and I don’t think I could ever give it up.”

Yamamoto’s positive attitude and energy has been a welcomed presence for a team in transition. The Mustangs are now under first-year coach Bill Staengel.

Having Yamamoto helps.

“Katilin has been dynamite all year long winning three or four events each meet,” Staengel said. “She competes beat up, but she’s great. I’m trying to talk to [Coach] Vince O’Boyle to let him know he has an athlete coming to UCI.”

Yamamoto, who carries a 4.25 grade-point average, will attend UC Irvine, where she plans to try out for the track and field team, she says.

She is planning to study biology at UCI with the intention of getting into physical therapy.

But before she puts her thoughts with the Anteaters, she’s all about the Mustangs.

She’ll be competing in the CIF Southern Section Division III preliminaries at Estancia High May 15.