Cross Country Off and Running

Based on what he’s seen at preseason competitions, Palisades High cross country coach Ron Brumel expects good things from his squad when the season officially opens today at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. At the 28th annual Woodbridge Invitational in Irvine, junior Carlos Bustamante clocked a personal-best 15:30 in the Division IV race’much faster than his prior three-mile time of 16:09 in last fall’s City prelims. “Carlos was ahead after the first two miles and he ran a very strong race,” Brumel said of his top runner. “He could definitely be Top 5 in City and qualify for the state meet.” In the boys’ senior race, Michael Fujimoto finished 22nd out of 197 runners in a personal-best 16:40–15 seconds better than his previous fastest time. Freshman Grant Stromberg was 17th out of 325 runners, picking up nine places in the last three-quarters of a mile to finish in 17:31. A trio of sophomores also gave strong efforts. Danny Escalante was 94th out of 171 runners, clocking 18:21 in his very first high school race. “Danny misjudged the course but he still looked very promising,” Brumel said. “He’s going to be someone to watch this year.” Eric Lopez, cut 90 seconds off of his best time to finish in 139th position in 19:09 while fellow 10th-grader Ryan Bertwell ran the relatively flat course in 19:14 in his first high school race. “Our frosh/soph boys could make City finals,” Brumel predicted. “Right now, the varsity lineup looks like Carlos {Bustamante], Mike [Fujimoto], Oliver Gard-Murray, Todd [Bertwell], Danny [Escalante] and Grant [Stromberg]. Mike and Carlos are the captains.” For the girls, junior Michelle Colato figures to be the Dolphins’ top runner. She was timed at 21:09 in the varsity race, good enough for 106th place out of 230 entrants. Collato was the Western League’s frosh/soph mile champion last spring. Senior Melina Vanos clocked a personal-best 22:45 and Brumel hopes she continues to improve as the season progresses. The Dolphins did not send enough runners to post a team score at Woodbridge. “Our girls lineup could be Michelle [Collato], Karli [Feder], Melina [Vanos], Nina [Kumar], Janquil [Scott] and Ava [Sun],’ Brumel said. “Melina will be our captain.” The frosh/soph girls will be paced by 10th-graders Wendy Gomez, Marlee Galper, Julianne Guida, Kaitlyn Kim and Amy Moulthrop. Palisades will be one of 20 teams competing in the Gordon Weisenberg Meet at Elysian Park this Saturday’a race named after the longtime Belmont High coach. The Dolphins have a nonleague dual meet against Canoga Park today at 2 p.m. at Pierce, then travel north to Malibu for the Pepperdine Invitational on Saturday. League competition opens next Thursday. Brumel and co-coach Mike Voelkel believe the Dolphins will have a successful league campaign. “I like the team we have,” Brumel said. “We should be able to fill all of our teams with kids who want to run.”