Cross Country Squads Ready to Run

In a sport where fractions of seconds can separate winners and losers, nothing is guaranteed. Having the best female runner in City Section history, however, makes Palisades High’s quest for back-to-back cross country titles a little less daunting. Not only that, the Dolphins have all but one girl back from a team that beat Granada Hills by one point in the finals.

“The girls are the favorites,” Coach Bob Macias said. “We have 9 or 10 girls who could make varsity, but only seven will. We’ve got more depth, which is good because we’ll probably have to have five girls in the top 10 to win. My goal is to get them all to run in the 18s. Last year, most of them were running in the 19 and 20-minute range.”

As a sophomore, Williams broke the City record at Pierce College at the Western League finals with a time of 16:37 and set the City finals record of 16:48.41 two weeks later. She clocked 17:13.04 to repeat as champion last fall and her goal is to set the record again.

“I haven’t fully acknowledged it’s my last year and I hope it goes by really fast,” said Williams, a captain along with fellow seniors Natalie Marsh and Hannah De Silva. “I ran three times a day over the summer, anywhere from three to five miles in the morning, two and a half in the afternoon and three to five in the evening. I never keep track of time but I’d like to get close to 16 [minutes]. I’d rather leave making an impact, so every race is important.”

Marsh, whose courageous effort to finish 11th at City finals last year ultimately clinched the title for the Dolphins, has shown marked improvement and benefited from the team’s week of training in Mammoth.

“I feel stronger and my goal is to break 19,” said Marsh, who worked at Sports Mania Camp at Paul Revere Middle School over the summer. “I can’t say which I like better, cross country or track, I just know that I wouldn’t run if I wasn’t competing.”

Also contributing for the girls will be Elizabeth Goodman, whom Macias called a “dark horse,” and sophomores Chelsea Levi, JJ Wittbrodt, Nicole Figueroa and Shannon Lee, the City frosh/soph winner last year along with junior varsity league winner Maddie Frick.

After the boys varsity placed sixth last fall Macias predicted they would be knocking on the door this season.

“The boys have trained better than any team I’ve had,” said Macias, who will be asssisted by Robert Hockley and former University of Wisconsin runner Kelly Bogard. “Their work ethic is a lot better as a group and from the sophomores on up I’d like to see 15s and 16s on the flat courses. San Pedro is rebuilding, Marshall has Hector Garcia — no one’s going to touch him — and Birmingham has a 1-2 punch. We’re young but very talented.”

Despite Menelik Dagnachew graduating and Romare Ashford   transferring to LA Cathedral, the varsity is solid with senior Shane Brouwer leading the way along with Connor Smith, Andres Gomez and Everett Fisher. Sophomores include Jakob Pollack, Hunter Parker, Jack Hockley, Jonathon Flores and Griffin Smuts.

“I’d like to be under 15:10 for the first race and sub 15 for the Woodbridge Invitational,” said Brouwer, whose fastest time at Pierce was 16:26 at City finals last year. “I’ve been doing a lot of distance training.”

As for his top runner, Macias believes she can run faster than last year.

“Marissa has the speed and the endurance,” he said. “She’s a kicker and nine out of 10 times it’ll be there.”

Pali High opens the season September 5 at the Seaside Invitational in Ventura, followed by the Woodbridge Invitational in Irvine Sept. 19-20 and the Bell-Jeff Invitational on Sept. 27.