Fischer, Prater Finish at Head of Class : Southern Section track and field: He wins high jump at 7-2 1/4, while she takes 300 hurdles in a time of 43.88.

Jeremy Fischer of Camarillo High wound up competing before fewer than 300 people as darkness was approaching and Cathy Prater of Agoura ran in front of 8,210 sun-bathed spectators, but both got what they came for at the Southern Section track and field championships Saturday at Long Beach Veterans Stadium.

Fischer, the national outdoor leader in the high jump this season at 7 feet 4 inches, cleared a meet record of 7-2 1/4 to win the Division I title before missing three times at 7-4 3/4, which would have broken the state record of 7-4 1/2 set by Maurice Crumby of San Francisco Balboa in 1983.

Prater ran a personal best of 43.88 seconds to win the Division I title in the girls’ 300 low hurdles and crack the 44-second barrier for the first time.

“I wanted to go no less than 7-2,” Fischer said. “I would have been very disappointed if I had gone less than that.”

Fischer, a senior, cleared 6-4, 6-8, 7-0, and 7-2 on his first attempts.

He had a solid try at 7-4 3/4 on his first attempt--he knocked it off with his left calf--but his other attempts were not as close as a long day of competition caught up with him.

“To be honest with you, I felt heavy,” Fischer said. “So I’m happy with the height. It’s not easy jumping high after being out here that long.”

Arthur Lloyd of Rialto Eisenhower, who has cleared 7-2 this year, placed second at 7-0.

Fischer began the meet with a second-place finish in the long jump by leaping 22-7 1/4, which trailed Lloyd’s mark of 23-1 1/2, before proceeding to the high jump area at around 3 p.m.

Due to the large size (36 jumpers) of the field, however, he didn’t finish jumping until 8:05--long after most of the crowd had departed.

Led by Fischer, Camarillo tied with Hart for sixth place in the boys’ Division I team standings with 24 points. Muir won its second consecutive title with 65 points.

Prater’s sole goal entering the meet was to win, but she figured that if she accomplished that, she would run under 44 seconds.

“I haven’t (run a personal best) since the Arcadia Invitational last year so this was so overdue it isn’t funny,” Prater said.

Prater, a senior, trailed Felicia Pulley of Long Beach Wilson by three meters as she entered the homestretch, but she drew even with her at the seventh of eight hurdles before recording a time that moved her to seventh on the all-time regional list.

Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks, Ramsey Jay of Ventura, Jason Medearis and Brett Strahan of Hart, Jamaal Chase of Quartz Hill, Antonio Arce of Palmdale and Dolores Tuimoloau of Channel Islands turned in some of the other notable performances by Valley-area athletes.

Mortensen won the 1,600 (5 minutes 4.91 seconds) and 3,200 (11:05.91) in the girls’ Division I meet. The Lancer sophomore has posted better times in both events, but the relative ease with which she won shows she’s capable of running much faster.

Jay turned in a pair of personal bests and region-leading marks in winning the Division II 400 (48.05) and finishing third in the 200 (21.63).

His time in the 200 was impressive because it came into a wind of 2.74 meters-per-second.

Strahan held off Kevin Marsden of Thousand Oaks in the final straightaway to win the Division I boys’ 1,600, 4:17.32 to 4:17.67, while Medearis finished second in the 300 intermediate hurdles in a personal best of 37.31 and placed third in the 110 highs in 14.30.

Chase was beaten by noted high jumpers Lloyd (23-1 1/2) and Fischer (22-7 1/4) in the long jump, but rebounded with a leap of 48-5 1/2--his best outdoor jump of the season--to win the triple jump.

Arce was a surprise winner in the Division I 3,200 when he ran a personal best of 9:13.30 to turn back fellow juniors Aldaberto Sanchez (9:16.13) of Capistrano Valley and Eleazar Hernandez (9:16.20) of Camarillo.

Sanchez forced the early pace, leading the field through the first 1,600 in 4:28.6, but he began to slow shortly thereafter and Arce surged into the lead with 500 meters left and gradually pulled away.

Tuimoloau, the state leader in the girls’ shotput at 49-2, won the Division I title in that event with a throw of 46-6 1/2, and placed second in the discus at 130-9.