Fleshman Has Plenty of Answers for Success

CANYON COUNTRY —  Ask senior Lauren Fleshman of Canyon High to name her best race of the 1998 cross-country season and you’ll get three answers.

When it comes to victories, she says that winning the state Division I title at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 28 was her greatest accomplishment.

If you’re talking about quality of performance, then it has to be her runner-up finish to senior Erin Sullivan of Mt. Mansfield High in Jericho, Vt., in the national championships on Dec. 12 at Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

But if you’re asking about the key to her season, the answer is the Woodbridge Invitational in Irvine on Sept. 19, when she clocked 16:35 over the three-mile distance to crush the previous course record of 17:01 set by Melissa Sutton of Newbury Park in 1986.

“That totally helped my confidence for the rest of the season,” Fleshman said. “After that [Coach Dave DeLong] and I decided that we were going to go after it at certain races. We were going to try to run certain times on certain courses instead of just running to win.”

Fleshman, The Times’ Valley-Ventura County girls’ runner of the year for the second consecutive time, dropped out of the Woodbridge and Kenny Staub invitational as a junior because of stomach cramps. The problem disappeared over the second half of this season, in which she won 11 of 14 races and finished second three times.

“I just kind of said to myself, ‘I can’t get a cramp. I have to run well in all these big meets,’ ” Fleshman said. “My attitude was, ‘I’m still going to run with a cramp even if it means I’m going to puke and die, so it would be better not to get one.’ ”

Fleshman’s athletic accomplishments and a near straight-A grade average have made her one of the most sought-after distance runners in the nation.

She is expected to take recruiting trips to Stanford, Colorado and Arizona in the next two months, and is also considering Providence and Northern Arizona.

When it comes to track, she has goals of running 4:42 in the 1,600 meters and around 10:15 in the 3,200.

Those times would move Fleshman to second on the all-time region list in the 1,600 and to third in the 3,200, but they seem within her reach based on her performance in the national cross-country championships.

“I think my wife summed it up best in a letter she wrote to Lauren,” DeLong said. “She wrote that it was absolutely crazy for [Lauren] to have the race of her life at the perfect time.”