Dolphins Dominate City Finals

Palisades High Girls Win School’s First Track & Field Championship

It was not as much a competition as a coronation. Each passing event, every precious point bringing the Palisades High girls’ track and field team one step closer to history. As day turned into night, the Dolphins’ season-long dream became a reality–City Section champions for the first time, and in dominating fashion last Thursday at Birmingham High in Lake Balboa. When the meet was over, Palisades had racked up 75 points–a healthy 25 more than runner-up Carson–and, as has been the case all spring long, the Dolphins’ landmark triumph was a collective effort. Given the talent he had to work with, first-year coach Perry Jones almost felt like he was along for the ride. “The nucleus for the girls was already here, I just had to stay out of their way,” said Jones, also the school’s new football coach. “[Co-coach] Ron Brumel got them this far. He deserves most of the credit.” Jones pushed his athletes hard for the first few months of the season, then eased off towards the end so they would peak at the right time. That strategy worked to perfection, as the girls earned high qualifying places at the City preliminaries the week before to put themselves in prime position heading into the finals. “By the end of the year, the quality of the workouts is what counts, not the quantity,” Jones said. “I’m so proud of all the girls. They stepped it up when they had to.” Sophomore Jamie Greenberg set the tone in the first event of the afternoon, easily winning the pole vault with a height of 9′ 6”–six inches higher than her frosh/soph record at last year’s finals. Except Greenberg didn’t stop there. She continued on, finally topping out at a personal-best 10′ 6″ and qualifying automatically for this weekend’s state meet at Buchanan High in Clovis. It was the second straight year a Palisades girl won the event. Camille Liberatore cleared 10′ to capture the varsity title as a senior last year. Freshman Laura Carr cleared 8′ and took fourth despite kicking herself in the leg during warm-ups, an injury that required her to get bandaged. There was never a doubt in Carr’s mind, though, that Greenberg would come out on top. “Jamie will win,” Carr said matter-of-factly. “Just you watch.” As if on cue, Greenberg cleared 9′ 6″ to move ahead of El Camino Real’s Makenna Breittenfeld, who subsequently failed all three of her attempts and settled for second. “I thought I had it on the way up,” Greenberg said of her winning effort. “I was supposed to win so it feels great to get us off to a good start.” Meanwhile, at the other end of the stadium, senior Erika Martin and freshman Kendall Gustafson were piling up points in the long jump. Both advanced to the final round, with Gustafson finishing second and Martin fourth. Gustafson leaped 17′ 2.5″ and Martin’s best mark was 16′ 5.75.” Taft’s Alva Castillo won with a jump of 17′ 3.75.” “I was a little disappointed, not that I finished second, but at my distances,” Gustafson said. “I knew I had a good chance.” As the meet continued, Palisades’ depth showed itself in the field events. Gustafson, Martin and Mariah Fisher-Kendrick all qualified in the high jump and Gustafson won in a jump-off over Granada Hills junior Xava Grooms after both girls cleared 5′ 1.” Martin finished seventh but Fisher-Kendrick, who was the runner-up last year, picked up valuable points in taking third with a height of 4′ 11.” The two finalists were given a short rest period, then the bar was raised to 5′ 3.” Grooms knocked the bar off its posts on her way up, leaving Gustafson an opportunity to win with a successful jump. She grazed the bar as she twisted over, but it stayed put and the title was hers. “I was a little jittery beforehand, but I tried not to think about it,” Gustafson said. “I just took a deep breath and went for it. I wasn’t certain I’d done it until I heard people behind me clapping.” Tenth-grader Sophia Stone was 10th in the 1600 meters, clocking 5:27.65. Then, it was Martin’s turn to take the track for her favorite event, the 100-meter hurdles, and she blazed to victory in 14.74 seconds–defeating Taft senior Pia Hill by over three-fourths of a second. “I love that race so I’m really excited about winning it,” said Martin, who got out of the blocks early and earned a measure of revenge against Hill, who edged her by 13 hundreths of a second in last year’s final. “Of course, I’m happiest that I scored points for the team.” In fact, Martin’s victory gave the Dolphins a commanding 23-point lead over Birmingham through eight events. Half an hour later, Martin competed in her fourth event, the 200 meters, finishing fifth in 25.60. “Being in so many events is more mentally tough than physically tough,” said Martin, who is eager to begin her collegiate career as a heptathlete at Wake Forest. “The checking in, checking out and the warming up beforehand and cooling down after, it’s a challenge to stay focused through all of that.” Gustafson’s most courageous effort came next in the 300 hurdles, where she held off a surge down the back straightaway from Carson’s Dayna Hurd to win in 45.16 and all but clinch the team title for Palisades. “I was a little bit tired after the jumps but I had to win this one for the team,” Gustafson said. “I thought my main competition was going to come from someone else but when I saw it was a different girl I set my sights on her and thought ‘Go get it!’ Winning two events is more than I could’ve hoped for.” Gustafson also anchored the Dolphins’ 4 x 400 relay team, which clipped Crenshaw for fifth place in 4:06.07. Lauren Gustafson, Kendall’s older sister, was 10th in the 800 meters in 2:29.75. Martin said having [Kendall] Gustafson to train with all season made a huge difference: “Even though she’s younger than me she has a lot more track experience. So I learned from her, which is awesome.” Providing the exclamation point to Palisades’ dominating performance was freshman Jacklyn Bamberger, who raced to the front of the pack in the 3200 and held the lead for all eight laps, winning in 11:23.91, five seconds ahead of San Pedro senior Laura Delgado, who had beaten Bamberger in the City cross country finals in November. “That was my strategy–to set the pace early,” said Bamberger, who let her emotions show at the finish line. “Even though I was the fastest qualifier, I figured the competition was saving it for this week. Laura [Delgado] is a great competitor and I knew she’d push me on the [bell] lap, so I said to myself ‘It’s all or nothing… give it everything you have.'” Palisades’ boys finished sixth with 22 points, highlighted by Paul Logan’s victory in the high jump. He cleared 6′ 2″ on his second attempt, beating Nicolas Jones of Dorsey and Palisades teammate Myles Kendrick-Fisher, who placed second and third, respectively, at 6′ 0.” Junior Naeem Jones also competed for the Dolphins, but didn’t clear the first height. In the shot put, junior Kolmus Iheanacho was fifth with a throw of 46′ 1.5.” He won the frosh/soph division last year. “Coach Jones taught me a few techniques on how to pick up my hips that really helped,” Logan said. “He really pushed me to do this. Now I have to come back next year and defend my title.” Logan and Iheanacho grew up together in Inglewood and Logan said he and his teammate are “like brothers.” In the 3200, sophomore Grant Stromberg capped off his stellar season by finishing fourth in a personal-best 9:38.9 and just missed qualifying for the state meet. He also shattered the City sophomore record of 9:54.09 set by Ernesto Bernal in 1998. “I’m definitely happy with my time,” Stromberg said. “My plan was to stay up with the leaders and turn it on the last two laps. You gain experience with every race and I’ve definitely made more progress than I expected.” The future of Palisades’ boys program is bright, but this day belonged to the girls. Perhaps no one savored their moment quite as much as Brumel, the Dolphins’ longtime coach who finally experienced the thrill of victory. “We looked strong going into [finals] but you just never know,” Brumel said. “We were fourth the last two years, which is the best we’ve done until now. So, yeah, this feels great.”