Fleshman Set a Consistent Standard

CANYON COUNTRY — Set lofty goals and then exceed them.

That’s what Lauren Fleshman of Canyon High did during the 1997 cross-country season.

Fleshman finished sixth in the Division II final of the 1996 state championships, but she wanted to move into the upper echelon of the state’s high school distance runners this season.

She did that and then some with superb performances in the Division I races of the Southern Section and state championships in November and in the West regional and national finals earlier this month.

Although Fleshman didn’t win any of those races, finishing second in the first three and 14th in the national championships to earn third-team All-American honors, no Californian could match her consistency over that stretch.

Senior Kimi Welsh of Yucaipa beat Fleshman for the section title, but Fleshman finished ahead of her in the final three races of the season.

Junior Trina Cox of Santa Rosa defeated Fleshman in the individual sweepstakes race of the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational on Oct. 25 and for the state Division I title Nov. 29, yet Fleshman beat her substantially in the West regional and national championships.

Freshman Sara Bei of Santa Rosa Montgomery did finish four places ahead of Fleshman in the national championships, but Fleshman beat Bei by 15 seconds and six places in the West regional and ran 17 seconds faster than her, albeit in a different race, in the state meet.

All of the above helped Fleshman, a junior, edge Nordhoff senior Elaine Canchola as The Times’ Valley-Ventura County region girls’ runner of the year.

Canchola won 12 of 13 races, including victories in the Division IV finals of the Southern Section and state championships, but she placed ninth in the West regional, her only race of the season against Fleshman.

“I’m really happy with the way things turned out,” said Fleshman, a three-time all-region selection. “I’m so glad I got an opportunity to end [the season] the way I did and to go to the national meet.”

Advancing to the national championships with a top-eight finish in the West regional seemed like a realistic goal for Fleshman at the start of the season. But that was before severe stomach cramps caused her to drop out of the Woodbridge Invitational in September and the Kenny Staub Invitational in October and hampered her in several other meets such as the Southern Section preliminaries Nov. 15.

“I think I got a lot more mentally strong at the end of the year because of that,” Fleshman said. “I think having to face what I did and overcoming it made me a stronger and a better person. Not everyone would have been able to overcome what I did and doing so makes you feel good about yourself.”

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How Lauren Fleshman Fared This Season

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Date Meet Finish Sept. 13 Dual meet vs. Glendale 1st Sept. 20 Woodbridge Invitational DNF Sept. 27 Bell-Jeff Invitational 1st Oct. 2 Foothill League No. 1 1st Oct. 4 Kenny Staub Invitational DNF Oct. 16 Foothill League No. 2 1st Oct. 18 Santa Clarita Valley Inv. 1st Oct. 25 Mt. SAC sweepstakes 3rd Nov. 6 Foothill League finals 1st Nov. 15 Section Division I prelims 2nd Nov. 22 Section Division I finals 2nd Nov. 29 State Division I finals 2nd Dec. 6 West regionals 2nd Dec. 13 National championships 14th

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