It was a casual conversation with a Moorpark High girls' basketball teammate that turned Lauren Carter's attention to a spring sport.

Through the school's sports gravevine, the message that the Moorpark track program ranked as one of the Marmonte League's best reached Carter.

A key member of the Moorpark co-league champion basketball team, Carter asked track coach Tara Thomas for a tryout.

In her first track season, the junior ranks among the Ventura County shot put leaders with a best of 34 feet, 10 inches.

"She has been the greatest gift ever," said Thomas.

With Carter placing high in the shot put, an emerging distance program and a loaded roster giving Thomas lineup flexibility, Moorpark, ranked No. 3 by The Star, has attained level ground with No. 1 Thousand Oaks for Thursday's dual to decide the Marmonte League championship.

Just like it has the last two seasons.

"When you have 130 girls, you have an opportunity to move them around," said Thomas.

"We have a little more depth in our horizontal jumps. Coming off a successful cross country season, I can field three girls in each distance race; in the past I could enter one or two."

When Thomas was hired six years ago, Moorpark was taking its lumps as a program still adjusting from the move from the Frontier to the Marmonte.

Sprinter Jeanne Newman, a two-time Star girls' track athlete of the year, and multi-purpose athlete Heather Jacobs were Moorpark's headliners.

"Track was just starting to catch on," said Thomas.

Soon, second- and third-sport athletes were attracted to the girls' program.

"You get one basketball player to come out and all of a sudden you get three," said Thomas.

"When someone like Kaitlin Paletta, one of the soccer team's top players, comes out for track, she brings people with her."

Paletta ranks as one of the county's top 400-meter runners. Freshman sprinter Ariana Martinez followed Paletta from soccer to track.

"What is great is that our school's coaches still believe in the concept of sharing athletes," said Thomas.

It didn't hurt that Moorpark had one of the premier facilities in the county. The school is the site for the Ventura County Championships and, for the third straight year, will host a CIF-Southern Section Prelim meet in May.

Martinez and Whitney Anderson are Moorpark's top sprinters. Other top athletes include distance runners Madelyn Stolze and Tali Sproat, hurdler Cethlin Cunningham, high jumpers Rachel Olinyk and Rachel Kidder, pole valter Ari Adachi, discus thrower Heather Parks and long jumper Tess Gardner.

The matchup: Thousand Oaks, strong with county-ranked athletes in nearly every event, has had the upper hand in the Marmonte League for years. Moorpark's only league losses the last two years have been to Thousand Oaks.

"Every year it comes down to this one meet," said Thomas. "It's the one thing we have been struggling to get over.

"I have been looking at their results to see the right combination to use. We seem to balance out each other better this year. I think the result will be closer than it has in the past."

Nearly every event presents interesting individual matchups.

One of the best events to watch will be the girls' high jump. Five of the entrants have cleared 5 feet. Moorpark has Rachel Olinyk (5-4) and Rachel Kidder (5-0). Thousand Oaks counters with 5-2 jumpers Shara Longbotham, Lydia French and Bridget Ryan.

In the sprints, Thousand Oaks sends Calyx Schentrup and Michele Cruz to the starting line against Whitney Anderson and Martinez.

Triple jumper Sam Rivera and shot putter Kat Luft of Thousand Oaks rank No. 1 in the county in their specialties. Moorpark has enough quality athletes to help offset the first-place points.

In the distance races, it'll be Sproat, Stolze and Taylor Davis against Thousand Oaks' Kaitlyn Sullivan, Megan Meyer and Nina Su.