Fleshman Makes a Run for It, Walks Away With 3,200 Title

Lauren Fleshman of Canyon High has won a slew of races with a variety of strategies during her illustrious high school career.

But she did something she had never done before in the state track and field championships at Hughes Stadium on Saturday.

She forced the pace from the outset of a race and didn’t look back.

The end result was a runaway victory in the girls’ 3,200 meters that brought the crowd of 16,175 to its feet in appreciation of her effort and made her the first Canyon girl to win a state title.

Fleshman’s time of 10:18.81 was the fastest in the nation this year--improving on her previous best of 10:21.36--a school record that moved her to fifth on the all-time region list and gave her a huge margin of victory over defending champion Sara Bei of Santa Rosa Montgomery.

Bei, a sophomore, finished second in 10:31.67 after placing second in the 1,600 in 4:46.71 earlier in the meet.

“It feels great,” Fleshman said. “It feels fantastic because I’ve never really gone for it in a race like that before. I’ve never been proactive and forced the pace in a race right from the start.”

Fleshman and sophomore Anita Siraki of Hoover planned to work as a team for the first 1,600 meters but it became obvious after 800 meters that Fleshman was just too strong for her friend.

Fleshman had a three-second lead on Siraki when she came through the 1,600 in 5:06.9 and her lead had grown to 65 meters two laps later. Bei moved into second place with 600 meters left, but she had no chance of catching the Stanford-bound Fleshman. Siraki finished fifth in 10:41.60.

“I didn’t feel as good as I wanted to feel at the 1,600,” Fleshman said. “But I knew that I could probably run a 5:20 second [1,600] and still win . . . I knew Sara had run a very difficult [race in the 1,600] and the last thing you want to see after that is someone running 76-second laps in the 3,200.”

Fleshman was the only winner from the region in the girls’ meet.

Senior Annmarie Turpin of Simi Valley was fourth in the high jump in 5-7 after clearing a state-leading and Ventura County record of 5-10 1/2 to win the Southern Section Masters Meet eight days earlier.

Sophomore Porchea Carroll of Rio Mesa finished fourth in the 100 in a career-best-equaling time of 11.70 after placing a disappointing eighth in the long jump with a wind-aided 18-7.

Senior Becky Rauth of Harvard-Westlake finished fifth in the 300 low hurdles with a school-record 43.32 to move to seventh on the all-time region list.

Junior Jessica Cosby of Cleveland finished fifth in the shotput for the second consecutive year at 43-5 1/4. It was short of Cosby’s winning effort of 45-6 1/2 in the City Section championships on May 27, but noteworthy considering she underwent arthroscopic knee surgery two months ago.

Junior Deneeka Torrey of Taft placed sixth in the 100 high hurdles in a wind-aided 14.41, seventh in the 300 hurdles in 44.11 and ran on the Toreadors’ 1,600 relay team that finished fifth in 3:52.29.

Riverside J.W. North defeated Long Beach Wilson, 42-37, for its first team title.