Perry, Fletcher Put on Show in Run for Multiple Titles

Win one. Finish third or fourth in the other.

That summed up the performances of senior Michelle Perry of Quartz Hill High and junior Miguel Fletcher of Alemany in Saturday night’s Arcadia Invitational track and field meet at Arcadia High before an estimated 7,000.

Perry, the defending Southern Section Division I champion in the 100-meter high hurdles and the 300 lows, upset defending state champion Nicole Hoxie of Riverside North in the former, but placed fourth in the latter.

Fletcher, the defending Southern Section Division III champion in the 100 and 200, placed first in the 100 and third in the 200.

Perry entered the meet with a career best of 14.37, but she ran a stunning 13.88 to turn back Hoxie, who ran 13.93.

Running in lane one, Perry rocketed out of the blocks and Hoxie, who was in lane six, was unable to catch her.

“I think it might have helped me,” Perry said of running in lane one. “I was able to get out and just run.”

The time moved Perry to second on the all-time region list behind Marlene Harmon, who clocked 13.83 for Thousand Oaks in 1980, and was the second-fastest time in the nation this year, but Perry said it wasn’t a perfect race.

“I wasn’t set right in the blocks,” she said. “My foot wasn’t in the right spot, but when they called us to our marks, I just tried not to worry about it.”

Perry ran a season-best of 43.37 in the 300 lows, but that left her well back of first-place Angel Patterson of Penn High in Philadelphia, who clocked a national-leading 41.94.

Taft junior Frances Santin, the defending City Section champion in the 300 lows, placed seventh in 44.63.

Fletcher got off to great starts in both the 100 and 200, but he lacked the necessary strength in the homestretch of the 200 and placed third in 21.33.

Sultan McCullough of Pasadena Muir and Ja’Warren Hooker of Ellensburg (Wash.) trailed Fletcher coming off the turn, but they stormed past him in the final 50 meters to record times of 21.04 and 21.20.

“I might have cramped just a little bit,” Fletcher said after losing his first race of the season. “I just haven’t run fast in the 200 yet. . . . I just need to work on my strength in the 200.”

Fletcher ran a season best of 10.70 to win the 100 and turn back Oakland Skyline’s Andre Ammons (10.78) and Notre Dame’s Justin Fargas (10.81).

“It felt pretty good,” Fletcher said. “I haven’t run real fast yet this season, but that’s by design.”

The girls’ and boys’ 1,600 races produced big personal bests for seniors Andrea Neipp of Highland and Ali Benmohamed of Monroe.

Neipp, the 1996 state Division II cross-country champion, clocked 4:50.65 to finish third behind Concord Carondelet’s Kristen Gordon (4:46.24) and Santa Rosa’s Julia Stamps (4:46.88).

Neipp, who is headed for Brigham Young, ran stride for stride with Georgetown-bound Gordon and Stanford-bound Stamps through the first 800 in 2:23.6, but Gordon and Stamps began to pull away 100 meters later.

Neipp cut more than five seconds off her previous best and moved her to eighth on the all-time region list.

Benmohamed, the 1996 City Section cross-country champion, was originally entered in the open portion of the meet, which is held during the afternoon, but he and Monroe Coach Dean Balzarett talked meet officials into letting him run in the night meet.

“They told me you’d better run 4:20 then,” Benmohamed said.

He did better than that with a fourth-place time of 4:17.27 that topped his previous best of 4:20.57.

Canyon sophomore Lauren Fleshman was another distance runner from the region who ran a personal best in the 3,200 after getting towed along in the wake of those in front of her.

Fleshman finished third in a school record of 10:44.80 after gradually working her way up through the field and crushed her previous best of 10:58.26, lowering the school mark of 10:46.48 set by Julie Harris last year.