After her coach predicted she would run a big race Saturday at the 67th annual Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational, Palisades High senior Marissa Williams stepped onto the 2.93-mile course in Walnut and proved him right.
Bob Macias knows the mileage his top runner piled up in preparation for one of the premier meets of the season, so he was not surprised when Williams won the Individual Sweepstakes race in 16 minutes, 39 seconds.
Photo: Darryl Washburn
One of the fastest distance girls in California, Williams clocked 16:07 the week before in Bell Gardens and was never challenged Saturday, finishing 34 seconds ahead of runner-up Candela Fernandez from Burbank.
“My first mile was a lot faster than I thought,” Williams said afterwards. “I was just trying to break 17 so I thought I’d go 5:30 per mile but I went 5:10 the first mile — I was shicked I went that fast. I slowed down a lot the second mile because of all the hills. I always have a song in my head that kind of pushes me up the hills.”
Williams, a two-time L.A. City Section champion, led the Dolphins’ varsity in a 16-school field featuring Long Beach Poly, Tesoro, Otay Ranch, Huntington Beach and Arroyo Grande. She ran Mt. SAC in 19:41 as a freshman, 17:07 as a sophomore and 17:14 last year. The course record is 16 minutes flat, set two years ago by Sarah Baxter of Simi Valley.
“It was a good test to see how I do under pressure with the hills and pacing myself,” Williams said. “There’ll be a lot of competition at state so hopefully I’ll be prepared.”
Natalie Marsh (19:47), Hannah De Silva (20:23), Shannon Lee (20:25), Chelsea Levi (20:28), JJ Wittbrodt (20:28) and Nicole Figueroa (22:59) rounded out the scoring for Palisades.
Sophomore Jakob Pollack finished 16th in 16:32 and Ben Hamer was the Dolphins’ second placer in 17:12 in the Division I varsity boys race. Sophomore Kiana Billot (21:55) was 16th and junior Maddie Frick (22:22) was 26th in the JV girls race, leading Palisades to fifth.
Oscar Gagne ran 18:24 to place 17th and Jake Greanius (18:40) was four spots behind in the freshman boys race.
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