Photos by Steve Galluzzo
Sophomore Max Fields Paces Pali High Boys to City Cross Country Title; Girls Finish Second
By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
Approaching the last hill in the Division 1 race at last Saturday’s City Cross Country Championships, Max Fields was right where he wanted to be—in second place but in range of leader Austin Ledgerwood from El Camino Real. As they disappeared from view with a quarter mile left to go spectators at Pierce College gathered near the finish line waiting to see who would be in front beginning the 50-yard sprint for the chute. The crowd did not have to wait long as Fields came into view first, kicking up dust as he widened the margin with every stride on his way to winning by over three seconds in 15:22.5.
“Usually I practice going out really fast and wouldn’t push the middle portion in the invitationals, but I’ve been working on my kick all season and when Austin passed me I knew I needed to stay in contact going up that last stretch and reel him in at the end,” the Palisades High sophomore said. “This is a huge PR. My previous best was 15:43 at League Finals. I’m friends with some of the Loyola High guys and they were running this course in the 15:25 range, so I wanted to be around that. I got a lot of confidence at Mt. SAC where I put myself in the top five for sophomores in the whole meet.”
Fields’ all-out effort not only won him the race but sparked Palisades to the team title, as David Tobin took third in 15:37.7, Jose Sevilla took fourth in 15:40.8 and Alec Schmitt placed seventh in 15:51.2—putting four Dolphins in the top 10—and their fifth runner Noah Wexler came in 14th overall in 16:10.2, giving Palisades a five-man total of 29 points, 30 less than runner-up ECR.
The Dolphins’ collective time of 1:18:42.3 moved them past the 2009 Monroe squad into third place on the list of fastest teams behind Belmont’s 1997 and 1998 squads.
Fields ran a 5:27 mile in sixth-grade at Paul Revere Middle School and over the following two years he got familiar with the switchbacks Pierce is known for.
“I didn’t get to run cross country as a freshman but I did do a virtual time trial on the track that September and Lucas Schriver (who was the City cross country runner-up in 2019 and 1600 and 3200 meter track champion in June) messaged me about doing cross country and having him ahead of me last year kept my ego in check ,” Fields said. “We’re like a family. Having guys like Jose, Dave, Alec and Noah to run with is great. We’d come to the last 400 in workouts and I lost very one, but it made me better. We honed in after a shaky prelims and executed perfectly today from warmups to race. I like cross county more because of the team aspect. Everyone’s pushing each other.”
Fields is already looking ahead to next year when he hopes to defend his title and challenge at state. In 2017, El Camino Real’s Justin Hazell became the only City runner to win the state meet. The City finals record of 14:32 was set by Belmont’s Roman Gomez in 1983.
At the medal ceremony, Pali High senior Jeremy Santiago was given the inaugural “Bruce Thomson Memorial Award,” named after the longtime San Pedro coach who died unexpectedly over the summer and was set to join Pali High head coach Rob Hockley as an assistant this fall. The honor goes to a senior boy and a senior girl who exemplify the leadership, dedication and spirit Thomson was known and loved for. Kaylee Vargas of San Pedro was the girls’ recipient
While the boys celebrated a hardfought triumph, Palisades’ girls also had reason to be happy after also securing a trip to the state meet at Woodward Park in Fresno by finishing second behind Granada Hills with 57 points.
Junior Ava Baak led the Dolphins with a time of 19:20.7 to finish third behind Granada Hills’ Isabel Castagnola (18:18.9) and Jocelyn Pacheco (19:13.0).
Palisades 10th-grader Kyra Morris was sixth in 19:36.0, junior Mollie Wittenberg was 13th in 20:11.0, junior Layla Adeli was 17th in 20:31.0 and senior Scarlett Klein was 18th in 20:37.8.
Granada Hills senior and two-time City cross country champion Sofia Abrego was 10th as the Highlanders won with a low score of 29.
“I’m glad the girls got second,” Hockley said. “Anytime you can go to state you’ll take it. The boys ran great. I told Max the slowest he’d go was 15:28 and he proved me right. You can never win it in the first mile and he ran a good strategic race. Every time the other kid surged, Max stayed with him.”
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