Low Ceiling High Enough for Fischer : Track and field: Camarillo high jumper clears only seven feet, but wins at Arcadia.

Jeremy Fischer of Camarillo High got a big monkey off his back, Jamaal Chase of Quartz Hill joined an exclusive club and Esa Sallinen of Burroughs took advantage of a big-name athlete failing to show in the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High on Saturday night.

Fischer, the region record-holder in the high jump at 7 feet 4 inches, missed three times at 7-2 1/4 after clearing 7 feet on his first attempt, but it was good enough to defeat Arthur Lloyd (6-10) of Rialto Eisenhower and James Lincoln (6-8) of Birmingham.

The winning height was also four inches higher than he jumped at Arcadia as a sophomore and a junior.

“I’m kind of disappointed because my main goal this season was to clear at least 7-2 in all the big invitationals,” Fischer said. “But it’s OK. At least I got over (seven feet), which beats the heck out of last year.”

Fischer had a personal best of 7-1 entering last year’s Arcadia meet, but managed only 6-8 and finished third.

He took a bit of a gamble Saturday--passing at 6-10 after Lloyd, Lincoln and he each cleared 6-8--but it paid off when he made 7 feet on his first attempt. Until then, he trailed Lloyd in the competition because the Eagle senior negotiated 6-10 on his first attempt.

“Passing to seven feet was a little gamble, but I was pretty sure I could make that height,” Fischer said. “Now it’s on to (the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on Saturday).”

Fischer cleared a then-personal best of 7-2 at Mt. SAC last year and loves the high jumping facility there, which is in direct contrast to his opinion of Arcadia.

Chase had no complaints about the long jump facility as he leaped a personal best of 24-2 1/4.

The long jump mark improved his personal best by 3 1/4 inches and makes him only the second athlete in the region to jump 24 feet in the long jump and 49 feet in the triple jump.

Chase finished third in the triple jump at 47-8 3/4, but set a personal best of 49-3 to win the Sunkist Invitational in February.

The pole vault lost some of its luster when Scott Slover of Leland San Jose, the yearly national leader at 17-0, pulled out of the meet, but Slover’s absence left the door open for Sallinen, who won with a personal best of 15-6.

Sallinen, a senior foreign exchange student from Finland, was one of three vaulters to clear 15-6, but he was declared the winner on the basis of fewer total misses.

Paul Kokorowski of El Camino Real, who began the year with a personal best of 13-0, continued his dramatic improvement this season with a third-place effort of 15-6.

Hart’s one-two punch of Jason Medearis and Brett Strahan notched three personal bests between them.

Medearis timed 14.12 to finish third in the 110 high hurdles and 37.42 to finish second in the 300 intermediates.

Kenny Haslip of Pasadena Muir won both races with times of 13.97 and 36.94, but Medearis battled him shoulder to shoulder for the first seven flights of the intermediates before Haslip pulled away.

“I just wanted to get under 38, that was my big goal coming in here,” Medearis said. “I’m very happy about the way I ran.”

Strahan lowered his personal best by more than four seconds to finish third in the 1,600 with a time of 4 minutes 9.71 seconds.

The Indian junior was never really in the hunt for first--as Mebrahtom Keflezighi of San Diego led from start to finish to win in a yearly national leading time of 4:08.32--but Strahan closed well to improve upon his previous best of 4:13.90 which he ran to finish fifth in last year’s Arcadia meet.

Several other athletes produced yearly region leading marks.

Jeff Fischer of Thousand Oaks ran 9:10.42 to finish fifth in the boys’ 3,200 and Kim Mortensen, also of Thousand Oaks, timed 10:56.32 for fifth in the girls’ race.

Mike Wenz of Canyon ran 1:54.46 for fourth in the boys’ 800 and Cathy Prater of Agoura timed 44.48 in the girls’ 300 low hurdles.