Palisades High junior Kristabel Doebel-Hickok finished sixth in the girls’ varsity division at the City Section finals meet last Saturday morning at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. And just as head coach Ron Brumel had predicted, his top runner qualified for this weekend’s state finals meet at Woodward Park in Fresno. Doebel-Hickok ran the three-mile switchback course in 19:09, a full 20 seconds faster than her qualifying time five days earlier. The top two teams and the top seven individual runners qualify for the state meet, so Doebel-Hickok earned a spot by finishing nine seconds ahead of the seventh and last qualifier. Senior Emmaline Hartel of Birmingham became the first girl to win three City Section cross country titles, running the course in 18:16. Sarah Roth of El Camino Real was the runner-up in 18:30 and third-place finisher Jennifer Hernandez (18:32) helped secure the team title for Birmingham. Birmingham totaled 42 points, El Camino Real took second with 47 points and San Pedro, which was vying for its fifth consecutive girls’ crown, finished third with 55 points after one of its runners was disqualified. Doebel-Hickok ran Pierce in 19:29 to finish second in her heat at the prelims, 35 seconds behind Hartel. The Dolphins’ junior had beaten Hartell by 30 seconds in a nonleague tri-meet at Griffith Park in October. Doebel-Hickock’s personal-best of 18:37 was earlier this season at the Woodbridge Invitational in Irvine, where she placed seventh out of 238 runners in her division. She posted the fifth fastest prelims time. Neither of Palisades’ varsity teams qualified for the City finals.
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