Auer Holds Off Barajas With Personal Best

The girls’ invitational 3,200-meter event in the Pasadena Games on Saturday night at Occidental College featured two runners who have achieved acclaim in the shorter distances but were vaguely familiar with the eight-lap race.

Given the final result, Thousand Oaks High sophomore Stacy Auer and Channel Islands junior Veronica Barajas might want to reconsider their springtime specialties.

Auer led wire to wire in winning the 3,200 in a personal-best 10 minutes 49.57 seconds and withstood a strong performance by Barajas, a Kinney cross-country All-American who clocked 10:51.47 for second place.

Barajas’ time also was a personal best.

“I had planned to stay back and run with Veronica, but I was comfortable where I was,” Auer said of her wire-to-wire tactic.

Barajas was boxed in by Fillmore’s Maribella Aparicio and Buena’s Karen Hinkle during the first two laps and was unsure of Auer’s position in the race.

“I could hear people saying, ‘Go, Stacy!’ and I was thinking, ‘Where is she?,’ ” Barajas said. “I got boxed in so I scooted to the outside and there she was (about five meters ahead).”

Although their times were fast enough to place fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 3,200 in last year’s state championships, Auer and Barajas are veteran middle-distance runners.

Auer timed 2:18.0 in the 800 in an all-comers meet at Mt. San Antonio College before the high school season started and Barajas ran 2:21.2 in a Marmonte League double-dual meet with Thousand Oaks and Camarillo on Tuesday.

Auer came back about four hours after the 3,200 to finish second in the 1,600 in 5:09.39.

Fillmore junior Nikki Shaw ran negative splits (2:29.4 and 2:25.8) in the 1,600 en route to a meet record 4:55.24. The time eclipsed the old mark of 4:55.33 set in 1986 by Grossmont’s Darcy Arreola.

Thousand Oaks’ Bryan Krill cracked the 50-second barrier for the first time in winning the invitational 400 in 49.72.

The Canyon boys’ distance-medley relay team easily won over Saddleback, 10:23.42 to 10:39.87, after trailing Hart during the first two legs and much of the third. Sophomore Charles Mansfield (1:58.2) passed Hart’s Hector Chavez with 200 meters to go in the 800 leg to give the Cowboys the lead. Dave Hartman anchored Canyon with a 4:17.5 1,600 leg.