VENTURA COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS : Camarillo’s Fischer at Top of Summit

The boy’s high jump at the Ventura County track and field championships Friday was supposed to be a summit meeting involving three of the hottest high jumpers in Southern California.

But it quickly turned into a runaway victory for Camarillo High sophomore Jeremy Fischer.

Fischer, who had cleared a personal best of 6 feet 10 inches to win the high jump at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays two weeks ago, cleared 6-8 Friday to win easily.

Zaylore Stout of Ventura and Dan Paine of Nordhoff, who both had raised their personal bests to 6-8 recently, placed second and third at 6-4 and 6-2, respectively.

Fischer, who had the advantage of competing on his home track at Camarillo, also won the long jump with a personal best of 21-8 and was one of three athletes to win two individual events.

The others were Nikki Shaw of Fillmore (girls’ 800 and 1,600 meters) and Crystal Brownlee of Westlake (shotput and discus).

Marion Jones of Thousand Oaks took part in three victories, winning the 100 meters in a wind-aided 11.47 seconds, running the anchor leg for a victorious 400-meter relay team (49.9), and timing a 54.9-second 400 on the second leg of the Lancers’ victorious 1,600 relay team, which clocked a hand-timed 4:02.3.

But the focus was on the high jump, where Fischer wasted little time in disposing of his rivals. He cleared 6-4 and 6-6 on his initial attempt at each height, and 6-8 on his second attempt. He missed three tries at 6-11.

“I let the height get to me,” Fischer said of his attempts at 6-11. “I was totally psyched out by it today. My jumps at 6-11 were totally different than my jumps at 6-8. I was approaching the bar differently, and I can’t do that.”

Shaw, who will attend Villanova in the fall, rebounded from a rare loss in the mile in last week’s Citrus Valley Relays to successfully defend her Ventura County titles in the 800 and 1,600.

Teammate Maribella Aparicio did most of the work in the 1,600, leading for the first 1,400 meters before Shaw and Agoura freshman Amy Skieresz moved past.

Shaw timed 4:59.51, followed by Skieresz (in a personal-best 5:01.41) and Aparicio (5:05.33).

Shaw led from the start in the 800, timing 66.2 for the first 400, and 2:15.14 at the finish.

Brownlee won the shotput with a mark of 44-2. She also reached a personal best of 131-0 with the discus.

Jeff Wilson of Newbury Park bypassed the 1,600 to focus on the 3,200 and it paid big dividends as he timed a personal best and region-leading time of 9:06.73. The time--which lopped more than 26 seconds off Wilson’s previous fastest time--was particularly impressive because he basically did it on his own, winning by more than 100 meters.

Wilson was chasing a fast time from the start, running 63.8 for the first 400 and 4:29.5 for 1,600 meters.