Auer’s Final Season Concludes Amid Host of Lost Expectations : Cross-country: Thousand Oaks senior, plagued by injuries throughout her career, bows out with a stress fracture in her left foot.

Stacey Auer of Thousand Oaks High, expected to be one of the top cross-country runners in the Southern Section this year, will miss the rest of the season because of a stress fracture in her left foot.

Auer, a senior, will wear a cast for the next six weeks. The injury is the latest in a series of maladies that have plagued Auer during her high school cross-country career.

A proven performer on the track with personal bests of 5 minutes 0.70 seconds in the 1,600 meters and 10:38.63 in the 3,200, Auer has yet to produce consistently in cross-country.

Auer ran her best in the 3,200 as a sophomore, then began her junior cross-country season in dominating fashion with victories at the Seaside, Royal and Stanford invitationals and a runner-up finish in the Woodbridge meet.

But she struggled after that.

“She had a rough time with the heat (at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational) and she never seemed the same after that,” Thousand Oaks Coach Jack Farrell said. “I’m not sure if she became fatigued and rundown, but she never ran at that same level again.”

Auer rebounded during the 1992 track season, however, with third-place finishes in the 1,600 and 3,200 at the Southern Section 3-A Division championships to help the Lancers win their first team title.

She began the cross-country season with a third-place finish at the Seaside invitational but has struggled since. She was forced to drop out of a pair of races two weeks ago because of severe pain in her left foot and did not run in either of Thousand Oaks’ meets last week before calling it a season.

Farrell had hoped that Auer could take time off from running to let the injury heal, maintain her fitness with swimming pool and bicycle workouts then return to competition later this season. All that is moot.

“It’s the type of injury where the entire area has to be immobilized or it won’t heal properly,” Farrell said.

“She basically can’t do anything for the next six weeks that will put any kind of pressure on her foot. Hopefully, we’ll have her back for the Sunkist meet.”

The Sunkist Invitational indoor track meet will be held at the Sports Arena in February.