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Golfers Third at City Finals

Goldberg Qualifies for Regionals

Palisades sophomore Sean Goldberg tied for eighth at Griffith Park and qualified for the Southern California Regionals May 31 in Murrieta.
Palisades sophomore Sean Goldberg tied for eighth at Griffith Park and qualified for the Southern California Regionals May 31 in Murrieta.
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer

In golf, every stroke counts. So when the Palisades High boys golf team showed up at Griffith Park for last Wednesday’s final round of the City championships needing to make up 16 shots on first-place El Camino Real, the Dolphins were confident they could do it. Head Coach James Paleno reminded his team that Palisades once came from 18 strokes back on the second day to win the tournament. This time, the Dolphins sat in third place at 397, only six back of second place and a berth in the Southern California Regionals, which will be held next Thursday at the SCGA Golf Course in Murrieta. “Our goal was to catch [second place] Cleveland and knock them out,” sophomore Bo Jacobson said. “If we overtook El Camino Real, great. We just wanted to make the Regionals.” Palisades fell short of its goal by two strokes, finishing with a two-day total of 803, two behind Cleveland. El Camino Real shot a final round 396 to win its first team title ever. “We made it close, we just didn’t shoot up to our potential today,” Paleno said. “I was hoping we could shoot under 400 today and we shot 406 so we didn’t quite make it.” Palisades, which has won a City-best 13 team titles and two Regional championships since 1971, staved off fourth-place Granada Hills by three shots. Although the Dolphins will not advance as a team, sophomore Sean Goldberg qualified for Regionals as an individual while Jacobson and senior Ashton Roberts could join him as an alternates. In the first round last Monday on Harding Gold Course, Goldberg shot two-over par on the front nine and three-over on the back for a 77, eight strokes behind frontrunner Daniel Park of LACES. Staying cool and collected, Goldberg shot 38 on the front and 38 Wednesday on the back on the longer and narrower Wilson Golf Course for a solid 76 and a two-day total of 153’tied for eighth overall. He was the sixth individual to qualify. “Coach told us to just take it one shot at a time and have a good round,” Goldberg said of his strategy going into Wednesday’s final round. “I was able to stay out of any sand traps until the last two holes. I knew the [team] competition was going to be close.” Roberts rolled in a clutch par putt at 18 to finish with a 79 and a two-day total of 158, tied with Venice sophomore Justin Nakagiri. Tied for 12th, the two went to a playoff to determine the final spot for Regionals. With coaches and teammates cheering them on from the tee box, both parred the first hole and hit the fairway on their drives at No. 2. Roberts, however, missed his par putt and Nakagiri made his. “The playoff was pretty exciting,” said Roberts, who had won the 6A League championship with a 73 at Hansen Dam a week before. “We were both feeling the pressure. I just couldn’t get that par putt to drop.” Roberts shot two rounds of 79 and will be the first alternate’meaning he will take the place of one of the first 12 qualifiers if they are unable to play the Regional tournament. Jacobson was the second alternate after carding a final round 79 for a total of 160. Rounding out Palisades’ squad were senior Jason Weintraub, who shot 162, sophomore Chris Lee (171) and junior Zach Sklar (173). The top five scores each round are counted towards the team total.

Baseball Seeded No. 4

Dolphins Open City Playoffs at Home

Austin Jones, who had 34 hits and 24 runs scored in the regular season, must stay hot at the plate for Palisades to advance deep in the City playoffs.
Austin Jones, who had 34 hits and 24 runs scored in the regular season, must stay hot at the plate for Palisades to advance deep in the City playoffs.
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer

Palisades High baseball coach Tom Seyler got exactly what he wanted at last Saturday’s City playoffs seeding meeting. The Dolphins’ vocal skipper insisted that the committee show his team more respect than it had in the past and the result was a No. 4 seed, home games in the first two rounds and a potential semifinal matchup against top-seeded Chatsworth. “Today, I talked the talk and now it’s up to us to walk the walk,” Seyler said after the morning meeting at Santee High in Los Angeles. “I definitely think we deserve a top three, top four seed based on the schedule we’ve played and the fact that we won our league for the fourth year in a row and went undefeated, which is not easy to do.” Perennial power Chatsworth (26-4) was awarded the top seed for the fifth year in a row after blazing through the West Valley League, by far the toughest in the City, undefeated. Defending City champion Kennedy (25-6), was seeded No. 2 and Marine League champion Narbonne (18-12) was seeded third ahead of Palisades (21-9). Seyler stated his case effectively enough to convince the voters to seed Palisades ahead of Roosevelt and Cleveland even though both teams beat the Dolphins head-to-head. What helped Seyler’s cause was Pali’s 7-1 win over Narbonne–a team that beat both Chatsworth and Cleveland. “What happened to Roosevelt is the same thing that happened to us last year,” Seyler said. “Last year, our league was considered stronger but they were seeded higher. This time it was the opposite.” The Dolphins hosted No. 13 Sylmar in the first round on Wednesday. The Spartans (10-10) were third in the Valley Mission League behind Kennedy and San Fernando. A win over Sylmar would move Palisades into Friday’s quarterfinals where it would likely host No. 5 Roosevelt (31-2), which dealt the Dolphins a 9-1 loss March 5 at George Robert Field. Looming after that could be Chatsworth, which would suit Seyler just fine. “We’ve been wanting to play Chatsworth all season,” he said. “We entered their tournament just so we’d have the opportunity to play them but for whatever reason it didn’t work out. Obviously, we have some work to do before that happens but if it does we’re looking forward to the challenge.” If Chatsworth advances to next Wednesday’s semifinals, it will host whoever it plays. If Palisades wins its first two games and the Chancellors are upset prior to the semifinals, the Dolphins would host the semifinal at 3 p.m.

Assemblywoman Presents Educator Awards

Julia Brownley was elected to the California Assembly last November citing education and the environment as her top two priorities, so it was fitting that she handed out the Lori Petrick Excellence in Education Awards during a private ceremony last Sunday. The fourth annual event, presented by the Palisades Charter Schools Foundation, was hosted by Evette and Dennis Richardson at their home in the Huntington Palisades. Awards and $2,000 grants were presented to Amy Weisberg (Topanga Charter Elementary), Christine Maxwell and Tanya Angeletopoulos (Palisades Charter Elementary), Ruth Mills (Palisades Charter High School), and the P.E. Department at Paul Revere Charter Middle School, which included teachers Ron Brumel, Paul Foxson, Michelle Hernandez, Justin Koretz, Marty Lafolette, Ray Marsden and Holli Omori. ‘You represent the best in education,’ Brownley told the honorees, ‘and you provide a model of teaching practices that can be replicated in other schools. ‘Sometimes it is nice to be recognized for the effort you put in,’ said award-winner Foxson, who also runs Sports Mania summer camps. ‘If you work hard, good things will come.’ American Legion Post 283 gave a $5,000 check and Riviera Masonic Lodge donated $1,000 towards the Foundation’s efforts to unify and support the Palisades charter school complex (which also includes Marquez Elementary, Kenter Canyon Elementary and Canyon School). The foundation also receives grants from the Palisades Junior Women’s Club and booster clubs at each school. Before the ceremony, Brownley told the Palisadian-Post that while education is still her top priority, the reality is that health care and prison reform will take the front seat in the state legislature this year. ‘I have a lot of hope that next year will be the education year,’ she said. ‘This is a year for setting the table for what we can do for the future of California’s educational system.’ As a freshman in the legislature, Brownley has been introduced to the workings of Sacramento, including being asked to chair the Assembly’s budget subcommittee on education finance. She was qualified for this prestigious appointment because of her educational expertise as a 12-year president of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. California is 42nd in state spending for education and ranks about the same or lower for educational performance. ‘You get what you pay for,’ Brownley said, adding that the way education is funded in California is volatile because there are no provisions for a steady stream of revenue. California schools receive a tiny amount of money from the lottery, ranging from $75 per pupil in average years to $110 in good years. ‘California was given a snow job about the panacea of how the lottery would benefit education,’ Brownley said. Because of Proposition 13, year-to-year funding for education varies in California. New Jersey schools, which rely heavily on property tax revenue, spend $13,000 per pupil compared to $6,500 in California. The average given by the National Education Association for state spending is $7,920, although California ranks first in teacher salaries. Another problem is that in previous years federal funding has been used by Governor Schwarzenegger to help balance the state budget, instead of education. Brownley promises that this won’t happen on her watch. Inadequate funding of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ act has left California schools scrambling to try to achieve the benchmarks required of them. In addition to not receiving the funding, the act requires schools to raise their scores certain percentage points each year for their individual populations. If the student population does not meet the required scores, the school and school district are penalized. ‘It’s ridiculous,’ Brownley said. For example, she feels that special-education students should be judged on their individual progress, rather than a standard that is set across the entire nation. Brownley recently joined a delegation that traveled to Washington to talk with Congressional representatives about education. She met with Senator Ted Kennedy, who co-authored the No Child Left Behind bill. He explained that the act needs to be fully funded and that the measurements should be of students’ academic growth over time, rather than high-stakes yearly testing. ‘They seemed to be open to our suggestions,’ Brownley said of her meetings. As far as plans for what needs to change in California in order to once again reposition it as a leader of education in the nation, Brownley cited a state-commissioned educational panel in 2005 entitled ‘Getting Down to Facts Project,’ which brought together an array of scholars from 32 institutions to assess education in California. The findings were released in March. According to the lengthy final document, extra funding was only one aspect of making an educational difference. Other areas cited were more local flexibility, reduced paperwork, increased focus on students, and a way not only to train and attract good teachers, but to replace weak ones. ‘We’re trying to get our arms around the research,’ Brownley said. ‘Obviously, California needs to invest more in education and to be more efficient with the money it already has.’ Many constituents would agree that there needs to be more efficiency in educational spending, given the mismanagement within districts like LAUSD (the Belmont Learning Center’s final cost could exceed $250 million) and San Francisco’s Unified District where as much as $68 million was spent on non-teaching employees, including several officials who are now the focus of an investigation into corruption. In the meantime, even prison reform has an educational aspect. The state pays about $90,000 to take care of one prisoner for a year, and California has one of the highest recidivism rates in the country. If prisoners could be educated or given job training, it might stop the revolving door. ‘For every dollar spent on education, it’s a savings on prisons,’ Brownley said.

Calendar for the Week of May 24

THURSDAY, MAY 24 Citizen of the Year Dinner, sponsored by the Palisadian-Post in conjunction with the Community Council, 6:15 p.m. (social hour) in the American Legion Hall on La Cruz. The event is sold out. Photographer Herman Leonard signs ‘Jazz, Giants and Journeys,’ 7:30 p.m., Village Books on Swarthmore. This is the only book in print containing Leonard’s iconic jazz portraits of Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and more. TUESDAY, MAY 29 Tuesday Night Hikes with the Temescal Canyon Association will take the trail from Temescal to Rivas Canyon and on to Will Rogers. Meet at 6 p.m. in the Temescal Gateway parking lot. Please, no dogs. Expect to be back between 8 and 9 p.m. Contact: temcanyon.org. The Fourth of July parade organizing committee, representing the Palisades Americanism Parade Association, meets at 6:30 p.m. in the Chamber of Commerce office on Antioch. The public is invited. THURSDAY, MAY 31 Palisades resident Ann Kerr, who serves as a board member for the American University in Beirut and has just returned from a visit to Lebanon and Kuwait, will speak at the Rotary Club breakfast meeting on ‘A View from the Middle East,’ 7:15 a.m. at Gladstone’s restaurant on PCH at Sunset. Contact: (310) 482-2006. Susan Straight discusses ‘A Million Nightingales,’ 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore. Haunting and beautifully written, this novel of 19th-century Louisiana is the tale of a slave girl’s journey’emotional and physical’from captivity to freedom. THURSDAY, JUNE 7 Pacific Palisades resident Bob Jeffers will update plans for renovating and upgrading the football field and running track at Palisades High School this summer, 7:15 a.m., Palisades Rotary Club breakfast meeting at Gladstone’s. Information: (310) 482-2006. He creates advertising for the film industry and has done so for over 400 films. He has spearheaded the project to bring Pali Hi’s track and field into the 21st century.

Golden Couples: William and Lia Schallert

The Pacific Palisades Couple Married in 1949

The Schallerts were married in 1949 and have lived in the Palisades since 1955.
The Schallerts were married in 1949 and have lived in the Palisades since 1955.

William and Lia Schallert’s ‘celebrity’ marriage of 58 years is a testament to the fact that Hollywood relationships can last if there is love, respect and commitment. ‘We’re lucky,’ says Lia during a recent interview. ‘We were in it for the long haul.’ This meant having a philosophy of ‘live and let live,’ Bill says. ‘She has been very tolerant of me.’ Their early years together were not easy, because Bill’s acting career did not take off financially until he was in his early 30s, and the couple struggled. ‘But Lia never gave up on me,’ Bill says. Lia grew up in Virginia and worked in an army hospital during World War II (an experience she later chronicled in her 2005 novel, ‘Mary Lou’s War’). After the war, she moved to Hollywood to study acting, which is where she met Bill. A native of Los Angeles, he attended a Catholic seminary and was contemplating the priesthood–‘There was something appealing about the theatrical aspect of being in front of a congregation’–but he abandoned that career path to pursue acting classes at UCLA, before entering the army in 1943. After the war, he joined a group of actors who founded the Circle Theater, the first professional theater-in-the-round in the U.S. Lia and Bill met at that theater in June 1948 during a production of ‘Rain,’ directed by Charlie Chaplin. One Monday, when Bill was in the box office, Lia came in to work on reservations. ‘She had on a blue top and blue plaid pants,’ he recalls, ‘and she crawled on the files and laid there.’ ‘There was no place to sit,’ Lia says. That night they went to a silent movie on Fairfax with two other friends, and their relationship blossomed from there. Although Bill didn’t own a car, his parents were both writers and had three cars, so he borrowed one. (Edwin Schallert was the Los Angeles Times drama editor and his wife Elsa wrote for magazines like ‘Photoplay’ and ‘Modern Screen.’) Bill and Lia were married at the Santa Barbara Mission on February 26, 1949. Bill was in a play, but he took Saturday night off and the theater was dark on Sunday and Monday, enabling them to drive up the coast past Santa Maria for a three-day honeymoon. They moved into their first apartment on Fountain Avenue with a table, a hotplate, two chairs and a $25 bed. Their neighbors wondered when they would move in the rest of their stuff, ‘but we didn’t have anything else,’ Bill remembers. ‘We ate a lot with my parents that first year.’ Lia soon became pregnant with Joe, the first of their four boys. ‘Oona O’Neil Chaplin (Charlie’s wife) gave me all my maternity clothes,’ she says. Another friend, Marjorie Steele, who was married to Huntington Hartford, heir to the A & P grocery chain fortune, sent the Schallerts 10 cardboard trunks filled with baby clothes and paid for their doctor for a year. Lia was soon pregnant again, but acting didn’t start paying the bills until 1951, when Schallert began his long film and TV career with a role in ‘The Man From Planet X,’ followed by other science-fiction classics such as ‘Gog’ (1954), ‘Them!’ (1954), ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’ (1957) and ‘The Monolith Monsters’ (1959). In 1952, Bill received a Fulbright Fellowship to study British repertory theater in Great Britain, and Lia and the two boys joined him. They were in London for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. When they returned to the U.S., they stayed with Lia’s parents until they could cobble together enough money for a house’way out in Pacific Palisades. In 1955, the Schallerts moved into a drafty home off Bienveneda, before finding a place they wanted in the Huntington. There were two problems: (l) the $3,000 down payment and (2) another couple had already said they wanted it and would be back in 15 minutes with the money. Even though Bill didn’t have steady employment, Lia asked, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ They told the owner, ‘We’ll take it.’ Bill’s next question was, ‘When will the check clear?’ Lia’s parents sold their home to help the Schallerts buy their new one, and both families lived together the first couple of years. At one point, in that era before credit cards, the Schallerts took out a loan to buy a toy poodle. A week later he died. They both laugh now about how they had to continue to pay for a dead dog. ‘We weren’t too practical about money,’ Lia says. In 1963, the Schallerts rented their home to actor Cliff Robertson and moved to New York, where Bill played Patty Lane’s ever-patient father in ‘The Patty Duke Show’ for three seasons. ‘For the first time in our lives, we lived like tourists,’ Lia says. ‘We had a full-time housekeeper and we ate at all the best restaurants and went to all the best shows.’ Bill worked steadily after that as a regular on such series as ‘Dobie Gillis’ (playing literature teacher Mr. Pomfrit), ‘Get Smart,’ ‘The Nancy Drew Mysteries,’ ‘The New Gidget’ and even the soap opera ‘Santa Barbara.’ At age 85, he still goes out for auditions, and he recently played Vanna White’s father in a commercial. ‘If you believe you’re going to work–and Lia believed in me–it all works out,’ Bill says. ‘You have to have the right attitude and get lucky.’ The Schallerts have four boys. Joe, who received his master’s degree from Yale in the classics and a Ph.D. in Slavic languages at Berkeley, is a professor at Toronto University. Edwin, who graduated from Stanford and Harvard Law School and was a clerk for Thurgood Marshall, is currently in private practice. Mark graduated from Stanford, earned his law degree from Hastings, practiced, retired and is now a freelance writer. Brendon, who received his master’s degree from NYU, teaches English at Roosevelt High and is working on a book.

Librarian Schroeder Leaves Legacy

Schroeder donated $30,000 to the library at Palisades Charter Elementary. She died last October at 90 years old.
Schroeder donated $30,000 to the library at Palisades Charter Elementary. She died last October at 90 years old.

Eva Schroeder, a resident of Sunrise Senior Living who died last October at age 90, bequeathed $30,000 for the library at Palisades Charter Elementary. The history of how the legacy came to the elementary school started with a young girl growing up in Poland in the 1930s. When Eva was a teenager, it was forbidden to be in the company of Jews, but she couldn’t understand why she couldn’t see her friends and would sneak over to their homes on her bike, play and then bike home, already showing an independent nature that was to guide her throughout her life. Among her aunt’s many books and belongings at Sunrise, Palisadian Barbara Schroeder found a well-worn lyric sheet for an old German anti-Hitler song called ‘Your Thoughts Are Free.’ When World War II came, Eva’s father was pressed into service by the Russians and then killed when he tried to get water to drink because they thought he was deserting. Eva immigrated to Burlington, Vermont in 1950, leaving her mother and two brothers behind in Germany. Although she had studied some English, she perfected the language by watching soap operas. Once she felt that she could speak perfectly, she found a job in a small library in Geneseo, New York. Her next job was at the New York Public Library in New York City, where she eventually became department head. Eva sponsored Barbara’s parents to immigrate to America from Germany in 1952. They moved to Tiffin, Ohio, and when she was in her 40s Eva followed them and worked at the Heidelberg College library for a few years. From there she moved to a library in Pacific Grove, California. ‘She was the last of the old-maid librarians,’ Schroeder said lovingly of Eva. ‘My aunt was very matter-of-fact and practical and always did the right thing,’ she said. ‘At 65 she checked into a senior apartment and gave up her keys to her car, saying ‘I can walk and take the bus’.’ About a year ago, Barbara received a call from the senior center in Santa Cruz because they were concerned about her aunt, that she was having trouble with memory because of the onset of dementia. While Barbara worried about moving her aunt to a new environment in Pacific Palisades, she knew she could visit her every day. As part of Eva’s mental exercises, Barbara would ask her, ‘How old are you?’ ‘You ask me that question every day,’ Eva replied. ‘It changes every year, why bother remembering?’ Her aunt loved dark chocolate, so one day Barbara brought her candy from Intemperantia (a store located on Antioch). ‘This is good chocolate,’ Eva told her. ‘You can bring this every day.’ Eva reflected for a minute and then said, ‘I can’t eat this every day; it’s not good for my figure.’ Barbara reminded her, ‘You’re 90.’ Eva thought again, agreed and ate chocolate every day’along with an apple because she was convinced that fruit was the secret to her longevity. Residents of Sunrise can go to the rooftop to enjoy the sunshine and view the mountains and ocean. On July 4, the residents go up to see the fireworks, which are launched from high school football field. ‘That was the first time my aunt had seen fireworks in 40 years,’ Barbara said. ‘It was the highlight of her year.’ Sitting on the rooftop one day, Eva decided to leave money for the public school library where her greatniece Glenn and greatnephew Gage had gone to school. Although the two kids are now in a private high school, Barbara agreed with her aunt’s choice. ‘It’s important to support public schools because they are such an important part of the neighborhood,’ she told the Palisadian-Post. ‘I was so happy with the education my children received at Palisades Elementary.’ Barbara went on to have her own career as a reporter and television anchor. She moved to Los Angeles in 1992, where she was immediately put in the anchor seat for Fox during the riots following the Rodney King verdict. She has won several Emmys as well as co-authoring ‘The Diet For Teenagers Only.’ She is currently producing short films. ‘She was a great role model for a young career woman because she had a job, a car and great clothes,’ Barbara said of her aunt. ‘I think she found a lot of comfort in books,’ Barbara continued. ‘She’d be really happy to know that she’s keeping reading alive.’ ‘The gift was so generous,’ Palisades principal Tami Weiser said. ‘It’s breathed new life into the library. It has always been a great structure, but now we can take it to the next level.’ ‘We’re going to upgrade the library and put in new wood chairs and tables,’ librarian Genie Merchant said. ‘We’ll make a comfortable reading area for the kids, with a window seat and beanbag chairs.’ A portion of the money will also be allotted for new books, as well as a new carpet, six additional computers and an accelerated reading program.

Felson, Waterbury Exchange Vows In Palisades

Cari Marie Felson and Scott Anderson Waterbury exchanged wedding vows on December 16 in a sunset ceremony and reception at the Pacific Palisades home of Jena and Michael King, the bride’s sister and brother-in-law. Teddy and Audrey King, the bride’s nephew and niece, were their attendants. The bride, daughter of Mr. and Mr. Jack Felson of Pacific Palisades, graduated from the College of Marin and the San Francisco Academy of Art, majoring in television and cinema. She is the stage manager for the Dr. Phil Show. The bridegroom, son of Lt. Col. and Mrs. Mark Henry Waterbury III U.S.M.C. (ret.), of Dallas, Texas, graduated from Oklahoma State University, where he majored in business and played varsity football. He is the national sales manager of King Architectural Metals in Dallas. The couple honeymooned in Paris and make their home in Dallas.

Pali Doubles Teams Advance

Palisades' Jeremy Shore (above) and doubles partner Matt Goodman advanced to Tuesday's third round of the City Individuals in Encino.
Palisades’ Jeremy Shore (above) and doubles partner Matt Goodman advanced to Tuesday’s third round of the City Individuals in Encino.
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer

Having fallen one match short of its third consecutive team title May 11, Palisades is looking to make amends at the City Individuals tennis tournament. All four of the Dolphins’ doubles teams advanced to Tuesday’s third round at Balboa Sports Center in Encino. Che Borja and Ali Yazdi blanked Vinit Patel and Hoaky Lam of Monroe, 6-0, 6-0; Jeremy Shore and Matt Goodman defeated Angelo Villareal and Daniel Hanaya of Narbonne, 6-1, 6-0; Mason Hays and Ren Nielsen outlasted CJ Gonzalez and Paolo Morato of Eagle Rock, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; and Michael Light teamed with Sepehr Safii to beat Irving Martinez and Coleman Hindes of Eagle Rock, 6-3, 6-0. In singles, Pali’s Kyung Choi beat Nathan Wells of Reseda, 6-1, 6-1 in the second round and played second-seeded Josh Tchan of Taft in the third round. Justin Atlan had to default his second round match due to injury. The quarterfinals are today at 1 p.m. and semifinal matches are next Wednesday. Softball It was quite a season for Palisades High softball. The Dolphins had posted back-to-back upsets to reach the semifinals of the City Invitational playoffs Thursday at South Gate Park, where the Dolphins lost to Lincoln, 4-1, bringing an abrupt end to a successful season in which they won their first eight games. After losing its first round game to Carson, No. 27-seeded Palisades dropped to the Invitational bracket. In the second round, Pali beat No. 22 Grant 4-2 and in the quarterfinals, Pali edged No. 19 Poly 5-4 before facing the the No. 18-seeded Tigers for a berth in next Wednesday’s final at UCLA. The Dolphins (14-7) were unable to solve Lincoln pitcher Belen Benitez, who tossed a three-hitter with eight strikeouts. Track & Field Senior Bryan Greenberg is in contention for his second consecutive City Section pole vault title. Heading into this afternoon’s City championships at Birmingham High in Lake Balboa, Greenberg was one of six vaulters to clear 10 feet, three inches at last week’s preliminary meet. He won last year’s event with a height of 12-6. Having already cleared 15 feet at an invitational this season, Greenberg not only wants to repeat as City champion, he wants to break the section record of 16-7 set in 1969 by Los Angeles High’s Bob Pullard. In the girls’ pole vault, Palisades’ Angela Liberatore is among four vaulters to clear 8-0 at the prelims. Angela Perry-Spahn qualified seventh in the girls’ 3200 meters, running the two-mile race in 12:15.21. She was also one of eight finalists in the high jump, each of whom cleared 4-10 at the prelims.

Pali Poised to Defend Swim Title

Girls Look to Repeat After Dominating Prelims

Kristen Fujii was Palisades' top scorer last year and is poised to rack up more points for the Dolphins at Wednesday's City finals.
Kristen Fujii was Palisades’ top scorer last year and is poised to rack up more points for the Dolphins at Wednesday’s City finals.
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer

There is strength in numbers, especially for Coach Maggie Nance and the Palisades High girls swim team, which took a commanding lead into Wednesday’s City Section finals at John Argue Swim Stadium in Los Angeles. “Just by sheer numbers we have an advantage,” Nance said. “Add to that the fact that we have a lot of girls who will place high in their events and I’d say we’re in great shape to repeat. We could DQ one of the relays and still win.” Out of 32 individual events, the Dolphins have top 12 swimmers in 28 of them. Leading the way are junior Kristen Fujii, who is seeded third in both the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke, and freshman phenom Hayley Lemoine, seeded first in the 200 individual medley and third in the 100 freestyle. Both girls will also swim two relays. Senior Julie Wynn is seeded second in the 100 freestyle and fifth in the 50 freestyle while sophomore Nicole Washington is seeded No. 2 in the 50 freestyle and seventh in the 100 butterfly. Senior Ashley Baele was third with a score of 289.20 at last Friday’s diving competition, earning Palisades 12 valuable points. “If the girls swim as seeded the order of finish should be us, Granada Hills, Cleveland, Birmingham and Venice,” Nance said. “Our boys are eighth going into the finals. We lost so many seniors off last year’s team.” Junior Carl Kaplan was second in the 100 freestyle at the prelims. Pali’s boys led by 20 points going into the finals last year but lost by six.

Rosenberg Doubles at Delphic Finals

St. Matthew's seventh-grader Cami Chapus wears her medal proudly after setting a school-record in the 800 meters at the Delphic League track finals. Photo: Victoria Chapus
St. Matthew’s seventh-grader Cami Chapus wears her medal proudly after setting a school-record in the 800 meters at the Delphic League track finals. Photo: Victoria Chapus

Darren Rosenberg of Calvary Christian won the 100 and 200 meter races at the Junior Delphic League Track & Field Finals last Wednesday at Harvard-Westlake. Rosenberg ran the 100 in 11.3 seconds and the 200 in 23.3 seconds, leading the Cougar boys to fourth place overall out of 11 teams. Calvary’s 4 x 100 relay of Luke Mullan, Justin Jenkins, Cole Kahrilas and Darren Rosenberg was fourth in 52.4 seconds and Scott Sanford reached the finals of the shot put. Sixth-grader Mallory Kahrilas was fifth in the girls 100 meters in 13.3 seconds. Other Calvary finalists included Paulina and Madison Montgomery, Lauren and Ashley Klotz, Kaylie Ward and Victoria Lancey. St. Matthew’s seventh-grader Cami Chapus won the 800 in a school-record time of 2:33.10. Julia Newman was fourth in the 100 in 13.1 seconds and Jessica Goodkin was sixth in 13.5 seconds. She also finished sixth in the high jump, clearing four feet, four inches. Seventh-grader Young Douglas, Jr. was third in the shot put with a throw of 32 feet, two and ‘ inches for the boys, who were ninth overall. Also competing for the Falcons were Julia Habiby, Ellie O’Neill, Mitchell Oei, Margie Iselin (6th grader), Ryan Hiltermann, Mary Morrissey, Charlie Montgomery, Charlie Porter, Caroline Alford, Anastasia Rivera-Hackley, Maggie Adair and Kelly Kirschner.