Thousand Oaks Runners to Travel to Texas

Thousand Oaks High, the No. 2-ranked boys’ team in The Harrier magazine’s national preseason poll, is expected to meet top-ranked Kingwood, Tex., in the Southwestern University Invitational in Georgetown, Tex., on Oct. 1.

Coach Jack Farrell, who guided the Lancers to the State Division I title and a No. 3 national ranking last year, decided to make the trek to Texas after learning that Kingwood is ranked ahead of Thousand Oaks in the preseason poll.

“The kids just want a shot at them,” Farrell said. “If they’re better than us, and they beat us in that meet, then fine. But we just want a chance to run against them and see how we stack up. . . . I’d hate to see us finish second in the national rankings because we started out the season behind them and never raced.”

Five of Thousand Oaks’ top seven runners return from last year’s team, led by seniors Jeff Fischer and Kevin Marsden, who finished third and fifth, respectively, in the State championships.

Kingwood will be led by senior twins Brad and Brent Hauser and junior Lewis Jones. The trio finished 1-2-3 in last year’s Texas State 5-A Division championships.

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Rob Fairley, who guided Palmdale High to a sixth-place finish in last year’s State Division I boys’ championships, has moved to Folsom and is teaching science at Oak Ridge High in El Dorado Hills and El Dorado High in Placerville.

Fairley, 36, has continued to fax workouts to members of the Palmdale High team, but he expects the school to name a replacement for him soon.

Fairley was Palmdale’s boys’ cross-country coach for the past eight seasons and the boys’ track coach for the last four.

He guided the Falcons to the Golden League cross-country championship in 1992 and ’93 and to the track title in 1993.

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Derek Turner, the boys’ cross-country and track coach at Oxnard High for the past six years, has been hired as the men’s and women’s cross-country coach at Cal Lutheran.

Turner, 32, replaces Steve Hawkins as men’s coach and Hector Nieves as women’s coach. Turner’s wife, Melissa, the girls’ cross-country and track coach at Oxnard High for the past five seasons, will be his assistant at Cal Lutheran.

Football

Cal State Northridge quarterback J.J. O’Laughlin and defensive tackle Oscar Wilson have been chosen to the Division I-AA preseason All-American team by College Football Preview Magazine. O’Laughlin, a 6-foot-3 senior, was honorable mention last season in the American West Conference.

Wilson, 6-3, 282 pounds, was a second-team all-conference choice who had eight sacks last season. The Matadors open the 1994 season Saturday at Boise State.

Soccer

The Cal State Northridge men’s soccer team defeated Cal State Dominguez Hills, 3-0, and Gonzaga, 2-1, in its opening matches over the weekend.

Keith Rosenberg, taking over the forward spot vacated by former Matador All-American Armando Valdivia, scored two goals against Dominguez Hills on Saturday. Mathew Davis added the other goal and assisted on Rosenberg’s scores.

Against surprisingly tough Gonzaga on Monday, a goal by Steven Faggiolly in the 81st minute broke a 1-1 tie. Mustapha Sesay also scored for Northridge.

The Matadors play Loyola Marymount in a nonconference match at North Campus Stadium on Sunday at 3 p.m.

Stephen Janho scored 28 minutes into overtime, lifting The Master’s to a 2-1 victory over Southern California College in its season opener at Costa Mesa. Paul Smith scored Master’s first goal early in the first half.