Williams Wins Bell-Jeff Invitational

It wasn’t a walk in the park for Marissa Williams, it was a run in the park — Griffith Park, that is.

Despite falling on a rock and skinning her leg in what she called a “bad run,” the Palisades High senior nevertheless clocked the fastest girls time at Saturday’s 41st annual Bellarmine-Jefferson  Cross Country Invitational, winning the Red Division varsity race in 16 minutes, 59 seconds.

One of the top female distance runners in the state and a two-time City Section champion, Williams took the lead at the start and  was never challenged on the hilly 2.94-mile dirt course, finishing one minute, 37 seconds ahead of runner-up Krista Beck of Quartz Hill. Still, Williams was disappointed she didn’t break the course record of 16:31 set by another City runner, North Hollywood’s Natalie Stein, in 2000.

“I don’t like to make excuses — the weather was fine and I usually  prefer racing in the morning like this so I don’t spend all day thinking about it,” said Williams, who opened the season running a personal-best 15:59 at the Seaside Invitational in Ventura and took fourth place in 16:27 in the Sweepstakes Race at the Woodbridge Classic in Irvine two weeks later. Those are flat, fast courses, but Griffith Park is similar to the switchbacks at Pierce College, where the City preliminaries and finals are run. In fact, Williams believes Griffith Park is even harder.

“I wasn’t aware of my splits and with the hills it was hard to tell,” said Williams, who was second to Bethan Knights of Northwood last year. “If I’m out in front I don’t  have as much pressure to go faster.”

Williams led the Dolphins to fifth place in the varsity team standings with 135 points, 23 behind fourth-place Granada Hills, which lost to Palisades by one point in the City finals last year. Knowing most of the best  City schools would run at Bell-Jeff,  head coach Bob Macias  was anxious to see how his team stacked up in its final tuneup before next Thursday’s first Western League meet at Pierce.

Coming off a huge PR of 18:10 at Woodbridge, senior Natale Marsh was the second Palisades runner through the chute Saturday, finishing 16th in 19:41.

“I thought I was going to get in the high 18s or low 19s,” Marsh said. “I didn’t feel well, I was really tired and we had a few hard workouts this week. It’s also kind of mental because the girls did a workout here two weekends ago and I had my ACT (college placement test) that day. Even though that’s really important I still wish I could’ve come, run the course and gotten used to it.”

Marsh was pleasantly surprised by her time at Woodbridge: “It was scary because I had no idea what my time was and I didn’t see Bob until maybe the second mile or halfway through. I always try to find a group to run with so I’m not by myself. I was really shocked. Today I didn’t care if I got a medal, I cared more about my time. Top 20 is a good placing, but I care more about the time.”

JJ Wittbrodt  was 26th in  20:30, fellow 10th-grader Chelsea Levi was two spots behind in 20:32 and another sophomore, Nicole Figueroa, was 64th in 22:35.   The Dolphins’ sixth runner was junior Aileen Figueroa (23:16).

“Chelsea and I were running together, which helps because we ush each other and this race our goal was to keep Natalie in sight because she’s doing really well and we’re trying to step up our time,” Wittbrodt said. “I’m happier with my time compared to Woodbridge because of the hills. I probably did better this course, but compared to last year I’m not where I want to be. My goal is to break 19 because my PR last year was the low 19s.”

The Dolphins’ frosh/soph girls were second behind Canyon with a team score of 76. Anna Bohuny was third in 22:51, Zoe Camporaso was fourth in 22:56,  Lulu Takei was ninth in 24:24, Ilaria Stewart was 17th in 25:17 and Caitlin Bose was 43rd in 28:12.

Palisades’ JV girls took fourth overall, led by runner-up Emma Ulfvengren (22:06) and Greer King (23:24), who was 15th.

In the boys’ seeded race the Dolphins were eighth with 190 points, finishing three spots behind El Camino Real (149), one behind Marshall (175) and one ahead of Granada Hills (204). Jakob Pollack was 19th in 16:03, Ben Hamer was 31st in 16:46, Jack Hockley was 44th in 17:03, Shane Brouwer was 45th in 17:06, Connor Smith was 51st in 17:23, Andres Gomez was 55th in 17:33 and Hunter Parker was 59th in 17:52.

Everett Fisher was 43rd in 17:57 to pace the varsity boys, followed by Jonathan Flores (18:06), Phillip Neman (18:26), Gabriel Fuligni (18:56), Jason Birkfeld (18:57) and William Taylor (19:06). The frosh/soph squad was sixth, led by ninth-grader Jake Greanias (18:14).

“We have a lot of work to do, but the good thing is we still have a lot of time,” Macias said.