By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
Ben Hamer didn’t get the opportunity to compete in Palisades High’s first cross country meet of the season because his race was canceled due to heat. So he was anxious to show what he could do Saturday night at the 35th annual Woodbridge Classic. Did he ever!
The sophomore finished third in the Varsity Boys A Gold Division race at Orange County Great Park in Irvine, covering the flat, fast three-mile course in a personal-best 15:17.2 and shaving 50 seconds off his time last year at Woodbridge.
Right behind Hamer in fourth was ninth-grader Brent Smith, who bettered by 14 seconds his winning time in the freshman division at the Seaside Invitational one week before, clocking 15:18.4. Also placing in the top 10 at Woodbridge was junior Jakob Pollack (15:32.6).
Rounding out Palisades’ lineup were junior Jack Hockley (16:29.5), sophomore Jake Greanias (16:30.1), Connor Smith (17:10.6) and Will Taylor (18:08.5), all of whom helped the Dolphins take third place in the team competition with 132 points.
Jonathan Flores (17:11.7) was 22nd in the junior boys race, Ben Hansen was 44th and Jordan Burkhardt was 35th. Ryan Breitman ran the freshman race and Oscar Gagne (18:56.5) ran the senior race.
In the Varsity Girls A Gold Division race, Kimia Samandia (sixth in the sophomore race at Seaside) was 27th overall in 19:16.5, freshman Brittany Darrow was 34th in 19:28.3 and junior Kiana Billot was 39th in 19:34.0. Also contributing to the Dolphins’ seventh-place finish were junior Shannon Lee (19:45.5), senior Emma Ulfvengren (20:12.29) and sophomores Zoe Camporaso (21:04.5) and Ilaria Stewart (21:45.4).
In the JV Gold race, Ariel Pollack (20:51.5) was the Dolphins’ fastest runner, finishing 28th in a field of almost 300. She was followed by Anna Bohuny, Nicole Figueroa, Lulu Takei and Caitlin Bose.
Katie Thomas, Ellie Schultz and Juliet Petrisor led the way in the freshman girls race.
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