The Palisades High girls track team received a sight for sore eyes when junior Kendall Gustafson qualified as the top seed for City prelims in four events last Thursday at Western League finals. Although her times were slightly below her standards given her recent return from a hairline fracture in her foot, Gustafson won the long jump, the high jump and 300- and 100-meter hurdles, earning the top spot in today’s City prelims at Birmingham. Head coach Perry Jones was most pleased with the fact that Gustafson showed no trepidation despite coming off the foot injury. ‘She’s kind of like a machine,’ the coach said of Gustafson. ‘She goes until it breaks then she fixes it and comes back. [Western League finals] didn’t hurt her, it actually helped her cardio and got her back into that mode.’ In distance running, freshmen Marissa Williams (5:15.65) and Elizabeth Goodman (5:24.18) finished first and second, respectively, in their 1600-meter heat. Williams also won the 3200-meter event with a time of 11:35.01, more than 11 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. On the boys side, seniors Grant Stromberg and Matthew Hammer won the 3200-meter with times of 9:38.51 and 9:41.88. In the 1600-meter run, Stromberg ran a personal-best time of 4:19.56, and won by nearly nine seconds. ‘The boys [distance runners] are improving every week,’ Jones said. ‘It’s kind of an extension of their cross-country season. They’re just super motivated. It’s a great group of kids and they work their butt off. We’ve got enough numbers so there’s constant competition at practice, and we get the best out of them every week.’ Today’s City prelims and next Wednesday’s City finals at Birmingham will start at 1:30 p.m.
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