Fleshman Listens to Coach, Wins at Arcadia

You have to win.

You have to run as fast as you can.

Take a risk and go for it.

Those were the three things Dave DeLong, assistant coach at Canyon High, told Lauren Fleshman prior to her 3,200-meter race in the Arcadia Invitational track and field meet at Arcadia High on Saturday night.

Fleshman did as told and rolled to a school-record time of 10:31.36 in posting a runaway victory.

Fleshman, a senior who finished second in the national cross-country championships in December, surged into the lead with 800 meters left and was not seriously challenged after that. She defeated Anita Siraki of Hoover by nearly nine seconds.

“I finally won Arcadia,” Fleshman said. “Finally, finally, finally.”

Fleshman, who has committed to Stanford, ran in third or fourth place for the first six laps, but after the pace slowed to an 83.5-second lap, she stormed into the lead.

“My coach said, ‘You’ve got to go,’ with two laps left,” Fleshman said. “So I did.”

Fleshman ran a 76.2-second seventh lap and followed that with a 68.2 final 400 to break her previous best of 10:38.13 and move to eighth on the all-time region list.

Siraki, a sophomore and a friend of Fleshman’s, ran a school-record 10:30.81 in second to smash her previous best by nearly 25 seconds, moving to 11th on the all-time region list.

That performance came several hours after Siraki ran a 4:52.3 1,600-meter anchor leg in the open distance medley relay to help Hoover win in a school-record time of 12:32.62.

“I thought I would feel tired because this was my second race of the day,” Siraki said. “But it didn’t seem to hurt me.”

Fleshman and Oliver Jackson of Royal were the lone individual winners from the region in the meet that is considered the best regular-season invitational in the nation each year.

Jackson, a junior, won the boys’ long jump with a school record of 24-3 1/2.

The mark added 2 1/2 inches to his previous best, set last month and moved him into a tie for second on the all-time Ventura County list, and into a tie for seventh on the all-time region list.

Annmarie Turpin of Simi Valley, Bridget Pearson of Hoover, Jameka Taylor of Littlerock, Deneeka Torrey of Taft and Porchea Carroll of Rio Mesa turned in noteworthy performances.

Turpin, a senior, placed second in the invitational high jump with a height of 5-8 after competing in three events earlier in the day in the open portion of the meet.

Turpin cleared the same height as first-place Michelle Mahlke of Marymount, but finished second because she had more total misses.

“I was so close to [making 5-10],” Turpin said. “I can tell it’s just a matter of time before I do it.”

Earlier in the day, Turpin won her heat of the 300-meter low hurdles in a school-record 45.59, finished fourth in the long jump at 17-2 1/4 and ran the 400-meter leg on Simi Valley’s distance medley relay team that finished ninth in 13:03.69.

Pearson, a senior, placed second in the girls’ pole vault by clearing 11-6.

Taylor, a senior, placed third in the girls’ triple jump with a season-best of 38-0 3/4.

Torrey, a junior, placed third in the girls’ invitational 300 low hurdles with a time of 44.35 and set a school record of 14.58 to place fourth in the 100 high hurdles.

Carroll, a sophomore who won the 100 and 200 in the Southern Section Division II championships last year, was fourth in the 100 in 12.01 and fifth in the 200 in a career best of 24.53.

In other events, junior Fernando Lopez of Taft finished second in the boys’ high jump at 6-8 and junior Jerrick Holmes of Palmdale finished third at the same height.

Junior Josh Spiker of Ventura finished fifth in the boys’ 1,600 to 4:16.81 and ran the 1,600-meter anchor leg in the distance medley relay to help Ventura finish third in 10:26.54.

Junior Shane Hackett of Verdugo Hills finished seventh in the boys’ pole vault at 14-6 and senior Tim Adrian of Moorpark placed eighth in the boys’ discus at 178-10.

Senior Mentu Daniel of Antelope Valley placed ninth in the boys’ 400 in 50.03 and senior Tiffany Burgess of Birmingham finished 10th in the girls’ 1,600 in 5:04.80.