Thousand Oaks Vaults Past Marmonte Rivals

It was one of few scares all day for a Thousand Oaks High athlete.

With a little more than five laps left in the boys’ two-mile run, an errant pole from the pole vault rolled onto the track, directly in front of onrushing Keith O’Doherty and Jeff Fischer.

But like nearly every other obstacle placed in Thousand Oaks’ path during Thursday’s Marmonte League meet against visiting Royal and Agoura, the Lancer pair calmly hurdled the pole on their way to a 1-2 finish.

“I probably jumped a lot higher than I had to,” O’Doherty said. “But we were just starting to get into a rhythm and I didn’t want to lose that.”

Paced by O’Doherty, Fischer and James Pashley, Thousand Oaks totaled 88 points to defeat Royal (46) and Agoura (36).

Royal (5-1, 5-1 in the league) was expected to give preseason league favorite Thousand Oaks (5-0, 5-0) a close battle, but the Highlanders were without top sprinter Christian Broussard, who missed the meet because of a strained hamstring. Moreover, No. 2 sprinter Jerome Lee ran only a leg on the 440-yard relay after being sick early in the week.

“Not having those two guys definitely hurt us,” Royal Coach Don Reyes said. “But (Thousand Oaks is) a very talented team. I’m not sure how much of a difference they would have made.”

Pashley, who won the long jump at 21 feet 1 inch and the triple jump at 42-3 1/4, anchored Thousand Oaks to a victorious time of 45.0 seconds in the 440 relay in the first boys’ event of the meet. The Lancers were not seriously challenged after that.

Thousand Oaks held a 42-25 lead over Royal after seven events before the shotput and 880.

R.J. Starr and Nick Hartman finished first (50-7) and second (48-3) in the shotput to give the Lancers a 50-27 lead and Fischer (2 minutes 2.3 seconds), O’Doherty (2:06.6) and Josh Carolan (2:08.2) placed 2-3-4 in the 880 for a 56-27 advantage.

“Everybody basically did what they had to,” Thousand Oaks Coach Dan Murphy said. “We won the events we were supposed to and we also picked up some key third- and fourth-place finishes.”

Fischer and O’Doherty, who finished third and sixth in the 1994 State Division I cross-country championships, swapped victories in the mile and two-mile.

Fischer won the mile in 4:31.6 and finished second in the two-mile in 9:38.0. O’Doherty placed second in the mile (4:32.6) and first in the two-mile (9:32.1).

Royal’s Greg Seth-Hunter was a triple winner in the 100 meters (11.5 into a stiff head wind), 120-yard high hurdles (15.4) and 330 intermediates (41.8).

Thousand Oaks totaled 101 points in the girls’ meet to turn back Royal (38) and Agoura (29).

Kim Mortensen won the mile (5:22.1) and two-mile (12:06.1) and finished second in the 880 (2:27.0) for the Lancers (5-0, 5-0).