Runners Stay on Course at Prelims

Marissa Williams ran the fastest overall time and the Palisades High girls varsity cross country team established itself as the one to chase after winning its heat at last Thursday’s City Section cross country preliminaries.

A day after signing her national letter of intent to UC Berkeley, Williams ran the 2.9-mile course at Pierce College for the first time this season, clocking a meet-best  17:16.69. She will try to win her third straight individual title Saturday morning and lead the Dolphins to their second straight team title.

“I kind of forgot everything but I kept following the arrows,” Williams said. “It wasn’t a great time — I could’ve done better, but hopefully next week I’ll improve. I like our team’s chances because everyone’s gotten better.”

Seniors Natalie Marsh (19:15.35) and Hannah De Silva (19:26.24) were second and third, respectively, giving the Dolphins a sweep of the top three places. Occupying the eighth through 10th positions were Pali High sophomores Shannon Lee (20:08.93), JJ Wittbrodt (a season-best 20:11.57) and Chelsea Levi (20:23.66), for a team total of 23 points — far outdistancing Bravo (71) and Birmingham (76).Granada Hills, second to Palisades by a single point at last year’s finals, won the second heat with 37 points and West Valley League rival Taft won the third heat with 30 points.

Pali High’s boys varsity also qualified for the finals, placing second in its heat with 63 points. Sophomore Jakob Pollack (16:09.36) was fourth and freshman Ben Hamer (16:23.74) was sixth in the race, won by Jordy Ceja of Birmingham in 15:44.32.

“I love the Pierce course,” said Pollack, who was league champion and City runner up in the frosh/soph division last year. “I don’t know if I run better there,  but everyone else seems to run worse. Place-wise I’d like to finish in the top 10 [at finals].”

Senior Shane Brouwer was 14th in 16:40.54, sophomore Jack Hockley was 18th in 17:10.26, sophomore Jonathan Flores was 22nd in a personal-best 17:20.24, senior Andres Gomez (18:00.43) was 31st and junior Connor Smith finished 32nd in 18:05.09. Granada Hills placed five runners in the top 12 to win the heat with 61 points.

The fastest time overall belonged to Paul Luevano of Venice, who ran 15:15.53 in the second heat, which Santee won with 35 points, one less than Marshall. El Camino Real won the third heat with 26 points.

Palisades nearly swept the Western League finals at Elysian Park a week before City prelims — winning every race except the JV boys division — and Coach Bob Macias was pleased with last Thursday’s results.

“Some of the other teams didn’t run as well today but it doesn’t mean much,” Macias said. “The boys have to do well and I don’t think they’ve run their best yet.”