Dolphin Double

Pali High Cross Country Squads Sweep City Championships; Cohen Wins Boys Race  

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

As Zach Cohen rounded the final turn and headed down the hill to the finish chute he could hear spectators lining the course screaming for him to turn it on. He did just that, sprinting the last 50 yards to take first place in the Division I race of the City Section cross country championships  November 20 at Elysian Park­—the first time the meet has ever been held on the hilly 5K route near Dodger Stadium.

Cohen, who was runner-up in the 3200 meters at the City Track and Field Championships in the spring, would not settle for second this time, surging to the lead in the second mile and warding off challenger Joaquin Ortega-Tomasel from Granada Hills and Hunter Bennett from Taft to win by more than three seconds in 16:24.4.

“This is the toughest course I’ve ever been on but this was my race to win,” an out-of-breath Cohen gasped upon being helped to his feet by teammate Ethan Funk, who was fourth in 16:38.3. “It’s exactly how I wanted to play it… stay easy at first and when it starts winding down, just go!”

Cohen was fourth as a freshman when Max Fields won in 2022­ (the last Dolphin male to claim the individual title) and his gutsy effort helped the boys capture their fifth team crown in a row while completing Palisades’ sweep of the Division I races (the eighth title for both programs). In the previous race that afternoon, the girls dethroned Granada Hills.

Theo Mayeda was eighth in 17:00.7 while Jackson Taylor was 12th in 17:26.4, thus giving the Dolphins four runners in the top 15. Justin Funk (17:40.1) and Lajus Collins (17:41.5)  were 19th and 20th and Andrew Razo (18:45.0) rounded out the Dolphins’ lineup. In the end, Palisades won with a score of 44 points, 14 fewer than second-place Taft.

Cohen clocked the fastest City time this season, but when the preliminaries were canceled due to weather, seedings were based off of league finals results and Cohen was second to Taylor at the Western League Finals on Nov. 5 at Pierce Colleg.                      

While the air horn was blown to begin the boys race, Palisades’  girls were almost done wrapping up the girls title using the formula that served them well all season: consistency. Unlike the boys, the girls did not have the City’s fastest runner but they had the best team, as six Dolphins placed in the top 20, paced by senior Daila Harinck, who was seventh in 20:49.0. Senior Louisa Mammen (21:16.7), freshman Maribel Henderson-Maclennan (21:21.0) and junior Zoey Morris (21:22.3) placed 10th, 11th and 12th while ninth-grader Maya Bhasin (21:45.3) and  10th-grader Eleanor Mammen (21:52.8) came in 17th and 18th, respectively. The Dolphins’ seventh runner, junior Kendal Shaver, had a hand in the victory as well by outkicking Granada Hills’ sixth runner Isobelle Zambranoin the final strides.

When the scores were tallied Palisades (56) held a comfortable 16-point margin over runner-up Taft and was 25 points clear of defending champion Granada Hills.

North Hollywood’s Ananya Balaraman repeated as champion in 19:28.6, nine seconds ahead of Granada Hills’ Samantha Pacheco    who was second to Balaraman last fall and second to Morris two years ago at Pierce.

Having swept Division I for the second time in three years, Palisades heads to Saturday’s state meet at Woodward Park in Fresno.

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