Athletes of the Year in 2013

Another exciting year of sports is coming to an end in Pacific Palisades and it’s time to look back at some of the local athletes who inspired us with their talent, determination and skill in 2013…

Dozens of Palisades High athletes had incredible seasons in their respective sports, but no one stood out more this calendar year than Dolphins junior Marissa Williams. All she did was establish herself as the best female distance runner in City Section history with dominating performances both on the oval and the switchbacks.

As a sophomore in the spring she shattered the City finals marks in the 1,600 and 3,200 meter races, winning the 1,600 in 4:56.60 to break a record set in 1979 and clocking 10:37.33 in the 3,200 to better the 30-year-old record by a whopping 10 seconds and help the Dolphins to their third team title in four years. At the state track finals in Clovis she was ninth in the 1,600 and eighth in the 3,200 and on the Fourth of July the fleet-footed phenom ran the Palisades-Will Rogers 10K and finished second.

Turns out, Williams was just getting warmed up. She was equally impressive in the fall, repeating as the City individual cross country champion by over one minute and leading the Dolphins to their first girls team title since 1994. At the state meet in Fresno she took second in the Division I race and against an elite national field of nearly 200 runners she came in 24th at the Nike Cross Nationals in Oregon.

Also playing an integral role in Palisades’ City track & field championship in May was Post Cup Award recipient Kendall Gustafson, who won the long jump and high jump and placed second in both the 100 and 300 hurdles. She qualified for the state finals in Clovis in all four events and took seventh in the long jump with a personal-best leap of 18-10 1/2.

In March, she won the shot put and was third in the high jump on her way to finishing fourth overall in the pentathlon at the New Balance Nationals Indoor in New York.

At the Arcadia Invitational in  April the senior scored 5,217 points in the heptathlon, the 17th highest total in that event in meet history. Gustafson is now a freshman at Duke University where she competes in multiple events for the Blue Devils.

Also graduating in June was  Gustafson’s friend and fellow Post Cup winner Molly Kornfeind, who powered Sunshine Volleyball Club’s 18-Westside squad to a silver medal at the Junior Nationals in Dallas along with Brentwood School standout and Palisadian Jackie Bowman.

Kornfeind made an immediate impact as a freshman at Dartmouth in the fall, producing 183 kills, 28 blocks and 182 digs and pounding 14 or more kills three times. She was selected Rookie of the Week in the Ivy League in October.

This year’s third Post Cup winner as outstanding senior athlete at PaliHi was two-sport standout Chris Groel, a defensive back in football and the top points producer for the varsity lacrosse squad in the spring. Groel racked up a team-high 112 points (83 ground balls, 20 goals and nine assists).

Shane Skelly emerged as a rising superstar on the baseball diamond, batting over .700 and belting 17 home runs in the Tigers’ march to the Palisades Pony Baseball Association’s Bronco World Series, where they won back-to-back games to stun the Orioles at the Field of Dreams.

The 6th-grader from Calvary Christian School also led his West Los Angeles Scorpions U12 club team to the Omaha Village Championship in Nebraska with the help of St. Matthew’s School first baseman Bryant Reese. 

Playing shortstop, Skelly had 12 hits in eight games and belted a team-best four homers with 11 runs batted in as the Scorpions became the first Southern California team to win the prestigious tournament.

On April 23, William Coquillard of the Bronco Orioles had a game most players could only dream about, driving in 10 runs and striking out three batters in three innings pitched during a 14-2 rout of the Tigers. He blasted a three-run homer in the first inning, had a three-run triple in the third, hit another three-run homer in the fourth and added a run-scoring groundout in the sixth. Can you say MVP?

Casey Rosenfeld experienced  the thrill of victory on hallowed ground in the spring when he singled  and scored the game’s only run in the third inning of Harvard-Westlake’s 1-0 triumph over Marina in the CIF Southern Section Divison 1 baseball final at Dodger Stadium.

A four-year varsity player and three-year starter, the senior center fielder was named the Wolverines’ Defensive Player of the Year and is now a freshman at Kenyon College in Ohio.  Another performance worthy of a highlight on ESPN’s SportsCenter was turned in by PaliHi senior Luka Kosanin, who netted eight goals against El Camino Real in the City boys water polo final in November.

In the “most improbable” category surely Finnegan and Campbell Viles take the cake. Even some of the best golfers in the world go their entire careers without a hole in one, but the Palisades brothers both did it within half an hour of each other at Holmby Hills’ par-3 pitch & putt course in July.

Three-year-old Finnegan was the first to do it, using his driver to ace the 43-yard first hole. Nine-year-old Cambell, a fourth-grader at Calvary Christian, hit a sand wedge to the middle of the green and watched the ball roll all the way to the cup and disappear.

Mardell Ramirez is hoping to shoot the PaliHi girls water polo team back to the City finals this winter but her pool prowess was on full display during the City swim finals at USC, where as a sophomore  she won four events (100 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay).

One of the most inspirational athletes this year was 26-year-old Katie Ebert, who medaled in three events at the Special Olympics Southern California Summer Games June 8-9 in Long Beach. She took the silver in the adult women’s softball throw and golds in the adult women’s standing long jump and 100-meter run.

Race car driver Townsend Bell  qualified 22nd and finished 27th at the Indianapolis 500 on May 26 and  finished 35th in the Indy Racing League’s IndyCar Series. In October, rowers Catherine Armstrong and Melissa Schem were part of a foursome that placed  second out of 85 boats in the three-mile Head of the Charles Regatta on the Charles River in Boston.

The following week their boat won the Head of the American Regatta in Sacramento. Both are 12th-graders, Armstrong at PaliHi and Schem at Marymount.

In July, Kaitlyn Parcell helped kick her Southbay Force Black club soccer team to the U15 national championship, beating Massapequa of New York, 3-2, in the finals of the National Premier League Champions Cup in Aurora, Colorado.

Parcell had a stellar freshman season at PaliHi, tying for the team lead in goals (12) and finishing second in assists (5). She also made the varsity lacrosse team in the spring and is showing no signs of a sophomore slump so far this soccer season after scoring three goals in the Dolphins’ Western League opener versus Venice two weeks ago.

Another impressive prime-time performer on the pitch this year was Harvard-Westlake sophomore center midfielder Courtney O’Brien, who was the Mission League scoring leader last season with 21 goals and seven assists. She earned numerous honors, including All-CIF Division I First Team, All-Area First team, All-League Offensive MVP and Mater Dei Tournament MVP.

On the hardwood, PaliHi seniors Kylie Mizushima and Ammar Rehman filled the nets for the Dolphins. Mizushima was the girls’varsity point guard and captain, averaging 7.9 points, 3.7 assists and 2.1 steals per game.  Rehman, a 6-foot-5 wing, averaging 15 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.7 steals while leading the boys to the Division I state playoffs.

Juniors Maddie Oswald and Brooke Reese helped Harvard-Westlake win the Los Angeles Field Hockey Association’s Southern California Championship last month. Oswald was voted Sunset League Most Valuable Offensive Player after tallying 11 goals and 21 assists.

It was a promising summer for PaliHi freshman Dane Elkins, who won three national racquetball titles. He won the 16-and-under singles division at the Junior Olympics in Des Moines, Iowa, and added two age-group crowns at the World Outdoor Racquetball Championships in Huntington Beach, giving him 10 national junior outdoor titles in the last four years.

Marathon Man John Bozung ran to yet another milestone Nov. 10 at the Malibu International Marathon. It was the 300th official marathon and 353rd race of 26.2 miles or longer for the 60-year-old who has run a marathon every month for 18 1/2 years.

It was also a year of accomplishment for 64-year-old bike rider Penny Fink, who completed six double century races (200 miles) and the 155-mile Climb to Kaiser. In March she did the Joshua Tree Double Century, then did the Hemet Double Century in April, the Davis Double Century in May, the Highland Double Century in June, the White Mountain Double Century in September and the Bass Lake Double Century in October.

Showing that his college career could be as huge as his forehand, Robbie Bellamy  won the singles and doubles titles at the Aztec Invitational in October in his first tournament at USC.

The Trojans freshman teamed with Nick Crystal to win the doubles and posted straight-set singles victories in every match except the quarterfinals, beating two UCLA opponents in the final two rounds.

Over the summer Bellamy and his doubles partner Raymond Sarmiento represented the United States with pride, placing fifth in doubles at the World University Games in Russia.

Younger brothers Roscoe and Lucas Bellamy also had big wins this year. Roscoe reached the finals of the boys 14s at the USTA National Open in Long Beach and teamed with Lucas to take third at a  USTA regional tournament in Irvine and Lucas made the quarterfinals in singles. Lucas did not lose a set on his way to winning the Harper Ink Juniors in San Diego in April and reached the 14s singles final at the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament the following week.

PaliHi sophomore Ben Goldberg reached the finals of the boys 14s in Ojai and eventually helped PaliHi win its fifth straight boys City team title. In March, he won the singles title at the Central California Junior Tournament, then paired with his sister Caroline to win the mixed doubles division. In October he won the 16s singles title and reached the doubles final at the iTennis Rose Bowl Junior Championships in Pasadena.

NFL offensive linemen and PaliHi alums Geoff and Mitchell Schwartz made history in October when Geoff’s Kansas City Chiefs played Mitchell’s Cleveland Browns at Arrowhead Stadium — the first time the brothers had faced each other in the pros.

At 6-foot-6, 331 pounds, Geoff got the last laugh against his younger sibling (6-5, 318 pounds) as the Chiefs won 23-17 to stay undefeated.