Controlled Start Gives Fleshman, Spiker Final Kick

To excel on Mt. San Antonio College’s vaunted high school cross-country course, you’d better be under control during the flat first mile.

Coming through the mile too quickly means running the risk of blowing a gasket--in running parlance--during the final two-thirds of the race that includes three major hills.

Conversely, starting conservatively often leads to a strong finish.

Lauren Fleshman of Canyon High, Mariel Ettinger of La Grande (Ore.) and Josh Spiker of Ventura proved both points in the West regional championships at Mt. SAC on Saturday.

Fleshman, a senior, finished second in the girls’ seeded race for the second consecutive year and Spiker, a junior, placed third in the boys’ seeded event after each ran relaxed first miles.

Defending girls’ champion Ettinger, a senior, collapsed in the finish chute after walking up a portion of the final hill on the 5,000-meter course and finishing 31st in 19:29.

The top eight finishers in the seeded boys’ and girls’ races qualified for the national championships in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on Saturday.

The meet was held at Mt. SAC for the first time after being staged at Woodward Park in Fresno from 1980-97 and at the Crystal Springs course in Belmont, Calif., in 1979.

Ettinger defeated Fleshman by 11 seconds in the 1997 West regional after surging to a substantial lead in the first two miles.

She appeared intent on doing the same Saturday, clocking 5:17 for the first mile.

The trailing pack, which included state Division I champion Fleshman, came through the mile in 5:25 and that eight-second gap made a world of difference later.

“Wow. That was awfully fast,” Fleshman said of Ettinger’s first mile. “I knew she was going to go out fast, or someone was, but this is not the course to try and do that.”

Fleshman, sophomore Sara Bei of Santa Rosa Montgomery and junior Sara Gorton of Mt. Pointe (Ariz.) passed a tiring Ettinger by the midway point. Ettinger was seventh and fading at two miles.

Bei, Gorton and Fleshman were running 1-2-3 at two miles, but it turned into a Bei-Fleshman duel a half-mile later.

Bei broke away from Fleshman ascending the final hill on the course, just as she had done in the individual sweepstakes race of the Mt. SAC Invitational on Oct. 24, and went on to win in 17:51.

Fleshman finished in 18:02 after repelling a late charge by senior Trina Cox of Santa Rosa, who clocked 18:05.

“The effort today felt easier than the effort at Mt. SAC,” Fleshman said. “I just tried to stay relaxed and calm out there.”

Sophomore Anita Siraki of Hoover placed 15th in 18:59, sophomore Natalie Stein of North Hollywood finished 38th in 19:34, and sophomore Kelley Hess of Thousand Oaks was 42nd in 19:37.

Siraki, fourth in the state Division I final, was 31st at the mile and 22nd at the midway point.

Spiker, fourth in the state Division I boys’ final, was in about 15th place at the mile before moving up to fourth at two miles.

He maintained that spot until the final 250 meters, when he surged past senior Adam Tenforde of Hanford (Wash.) to finish in 15:45.

Junior Joshua Rohatinsky of Provo, Utah, won the race in 15:30 and senior Jed Barta of Bonneville, Idaho, was second in 15:44.

“I just wanted to go out semi-hard in the first mile and be in the top 15,” Spiker said. “And then I tried to really work the downhills.”

Senior Matt Swaney of Ventura finished 21st in 16:19.

Seth Neumuller, a junior from Thousand Oaks, apparently finished 64th in 16:51, but the official results had him listed in 146th place with a time of 17:27.