It seems hard to believe that 13 months ago Bryan Greenberg had never pole vaulted in his life. The Palisades High junior has come a long way in a short time, as evidenced by his winning the event at last Thursday’s City Section Track and Field finals and qualifying for the Friday’s state championships at Cerritos College. Greenberg was the only one of nine finalists to clear 12-6 and that was six inches higher than his nearest competitor at Birmingham High in Lake Balboa. His personal best of 13-0 came at the same site during the Rotary Invitational in April. Despite there being no runway to practice on at Pali, Greenberg won the Western League finals to qualify for the City preliminaries, where he cleared 11-0. Joining Greenberg at the state meet will be Kristabel Doebel-Hickok and Tukeha Huntley. After clearing 4-10 in the high jump at the prelims the week before, Huntley finished tied for second in the finals with a height of 5-0. The winner, from El Camino Real, cleared 5-3. The top three finishers in each field event advance to the state finals. On the track, junior Kristabel Doebel-Hickok qualified in both the 1600 and 3200 meter events. She lowered her preliminary time in the 1600 by almost four seconds and finished third, 10 seconds behind winner Katia Goldring of Hamilton. In the 3200, Doebel-Hickok clocked a personal-best 11:14.83 and finished second behind Goldring. Defending City champion Emmaline Hartel was fourth in 11:37.17. In the frosh/soph division, Mychal Creer cleared 5-6 in the boys’ high jump and Brittney Merritt cleared 4-4 to place fifth in the girls’ high jump.
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