Marissa Williams wins individual title and leads Dolphins to City Section crown
As she neared the finish line during last Saturday’s City Section championship meet, Palisades High junior Natalie Marsh could sense someone behind her and was determined to stay in front of them.
Marsh held off Granada Hills’ Tessa Weinberg by only six-tenths of a second and when the scores were totaled that was the difference in the Dolphins’ one-point victory at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. It was the girls’ first City title since 1994.
“I went past her on the last downhill and stayed in front for the rest of the loop,” said Marsh, who came in 11th place. “Granada coaches were screaming at her, so I figured I’d better keep going hard too. It’s a good thing I did because had I let Tessa [Weinberg] pass me I would’ve cost us.”
Making Marsh’s effort even more satisfying is that she ran the fastest she’s ever run on the 2.9-mile course, clocking 19:09.10, and Palisades went on to win 53-54 and earn an automatic berth into the state finals Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.
“I’m really happy because I PR’d by like 12 seconds,” Marsh added. “It was really gusty and dusty and the wind was pushing me up the uphills and pushing me back on the downhills. I didn’t know the team score but some of our parents told us they thought we’d done it, but it was close.”
Twenty minutes after running 17:13.04 to repeat as individual champion, junior Marissa Williams was walking one of the PaliHi assistant coach’s pet boxer Trinidad on a leash. Her race wasn’t a walk in the park, but she still won by over one minute and is looking forward to Saturday’s state meet.
“Coach’s advice was simple: run your hardest and when you see a green [Granada Hills] jersey, pass it,” said Williams, who warmed up listening to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on her iPhone. “It’s better than radio Disney,” she joked.
Williams broke the City record at Pierce at league finals last fall and set the new finals record of 16:48.41 two weeks later as the girls took second place. This time, freshmen Chelsea Levi and JJ Wittbrodt came through the chute together in 19:31 and junior Hannah De Silva was right behind them in 16th place. Elizabeth Goodman placed 24th overall while senior captain Mackenzie Gray was the Dolphins’ seventh runner.
“I didn’t want to believe we’d won it until we knew for sure,” Gray said. “Coach Bob [Macias] came over and said ‘You guys did it’ and started crying so we did a team hug. It was kind of cute.”
Macias pointed to consistency and guts as the keys to victory and thinks his girls can finish in the top 12-10 range at state. As for the boys, who finished sixth with 135 points, Macias believes the Dolphins are a year away from contending.
“First I heard we won by six points, then I heard we were tied 57-57 and then finally I heard the correct score,” Macias said. “I almost had a heart attack. Marissa was going to do her thing but everyone else had to break up the other teams’ runners and they did. The boys will be knocking on the door next season.”
Senior Menelik Dagnachew was 11th in a personal-best 15:49 at Pierce and junior Shane Brouwer was 22nd in 16:25. San Pedro’s Steve Correa won in 15:21.
“I had no idea what I was running until the last 100 meters and I saw the time,” said Dagnachew, who lowered his prelims time by a whopping 66 seconds and just missed the cut-off for a state berth.
Palisades freshman Jakob Pollack was runner-up in the frosh/soph boys race in 16:47; sophomore Danny Vasquez was third in the boys JV division; Maddie Frick was eighth in the girls JV race and Shannon Lee won the girls’ frosh/soph race — all signs that the program’s future is bright.
“I’m more happy about the team winning,” Williams said. “We got third my freshman year and second last year so it’s cool to win it and go 3-2-1.”
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