Erik Boal
If there was one local athlete who was a safe bet to advance to the
CIF Southern Section-Toyota Track and Field Championships out of
Saturday's preliminaries, it was Lindsay Fletcher.
But the Flintridge Prep junior won't be the only area standout
competing at Cerritos College during Saturday's event.
She'll have 17 other individuals making the trip to Norwalk,
including 11 of her Rebel teammates and male counterparts.
Fletcher posted the second-fastest qualifying marks in the 100-
and 200-meter events at the Division IV prelims at Moorpark High --
trailing Woodland Hills Louisville sophomore Elizabeth Olear in both
events -- in addition to helping Flintridge Prep's 400 and 1,600
relay teams qualify for the final with the third-fastest times in
each race.
Olear -- who took fourth in the 100 and third in the 200 at last
year's state final -- clocked 12.02 seconds to Fletcher's 12.2 in
the 100, and 24.23 to 24.56 in the 200. Along with her senior sister
Laura, Olear also helped Louisville to the top qualifying mark in the
400 relay (48.64), with Fletcher joining Coco Kleinert, Allison Pedro
and Jacquelyn Woods to clock 49.75.
Neither Olear contributed to the Royals' 1,600 relay effort, but
Louisville also posted the top qualifying mark in that event with a
time of 4:01.73. Fletcher teamed with Kleinert, Woods and Taylor
Testa to clock 4:06.18.
The Flintridge Prep girls -- who also received an eighth-place
qualifying effort from senior Michelle Lin in the 100 high hurdles (16.94) -- weren't the only local athletes excelling at Moorpark, as
several members of the Flintridge Prep boys' team also extended their
seasons at least another week.
Junior Wes Ouchi followed his Prep League title in the 100 by
qualifying third in 11.02. Ventura St. Bonaventure's Terrail Lambert
-- who has committed to play football at Notre Dame -- established
himself as the favorite to capture the division title after clocking
10.67.
The Rebels also qualified in the 400 relay, as Jesse Fleece,
Austin Hough, T.C. Scotton and Matt Tappin clocked 43.58 to take
sixth.
Fleece and Tappin demonstrated their versatility by also
qualifying in the pole vault and high jump, respectively. Fleece was
one of eight individuals to qualify at 12 feet 6, and Tappin joined
eight others in clearing 6-0.
Tom McLean, the league champion in the 1,600 and 3,200, took fifth
in the 3,200 in 9:49.06. His teammate, Tony Myint, finished 10th in
the 800 (2:03.49), and since only nine individuals qualify for
