Course Credit

Palisades High Cross Country Squads Tested Against Elite Competition at Woodbridge Classic in Irvine

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

New Palisades High head cross country coach Brian Bennett was eager to see how his runners would fare against the stiffest competition they will face all season Saturday at the Woodbridge Classic in Irvine.

Across several races in multiple divisions, the Dolphins performed  exceedingly well and their highest placer was junior Mako Holt, who was second in the Blue Senior Boys race in a personal-best 15:51.8 on the flat three-mile Great Park course. Menlo-Atherton’s Benjamin Salceda was the winner in 15:35.6. The second Dolphin to cross the finish line was sophomore Justin Funk, who also ran his fastest time ever (16:50.6) in finishing 56th out of 327 athletes. Tenth-grader Sebastain Funk (a season-record 17:27.7) was the team’s third scorer. The fourth was sophomore Darby Echikun-Woke (17:59.5) and junior Soren Cohen clocked 18:05.1 in the fifth spot. Palisades finished 11th in the team standings with 354 points.

Later, in the Blue Varsity B race, sophomore Ethan Funk (14:53.9) was sixth and senior Zachary Cohen (15:04.9) was 17th overall as Palisades’ boys placed 31st out of 46 schools in the Blue Varsity B race.

The Dolphins’ best team result came in the Blue Junior/Senior Girls race where they cracked the top 10 with 284 points. Sophomore Hanna Sadzik set the pace in 20:32.1, finishing 34th out of 348 runners in a time of 20:32.1. Another 10th-grader, Sadie Hedford, was 53rd in a personal-best 20:53.4, junior Violet Cash was the Dolphins’ No. 3 finisher in 22:01.5 and sophomore Lucy Ames was close behind in 22:06.7.   

Palisades finished 24th out of 37 teams in the Rated Varsity Girls race, the second to last race of the night, which featured some of the fastest teams in California.The Dolphins proved they belonged as their five scoring runners were tightly grouped. Seniors Daila Harinck (a personal-best 18:12.2) and Louisa Mammen (a season-best 18:16.6) were the Dolphins’ top two placers at 71st and 76th, respectively, in a field of 248. Sophomore Eleanor Mammen (18:42,1) was the No. 3 runner and the fourth and fifth were junior Zoey Morris (18:48.9) and senior Maya Bhasin (a PR 18:50). Morris was the City Section cross country champion as a freshman.

Palisadian Amelia Sarkisian, a junior at Brentwood, ran in the premier girls event of the two-day meet, the Bob Day Sweepstakes, and  clocked 17:15.8 to place 64th out of 272 runners. She is poised for a big season after winning the Varsity A race at Woodbridge last fall in her first try on the Great Park route and claiming the Southern Section Division 5 girls individual title in 18:13.2 two months later at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut. She capped off her remarkable sophomore campaign by winning the CIF Division V state championsip in 17:31.8 on the 5K course at Woodward Park in Fresno.