By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

When Demonnie Lagway walked into the Palisades High gym for a workout last week she received a warm welcome in the form of hugs and high fives—a tribute to the legacy she left at her alma mater.

In four seasons on the varsity basktball team she helped the Dolphins win three City Section titles and a Southern California Regional crown.

Lagway just completed her sophomore season at Cal State Fullerton,

where played in 30 games (starting 10), averaging 16.3 minutes and 5.5 points per contest. The 5-foot-10 combo guard also grabbed 62 rebounds, dished out 30 assists and had 21 steals. She tallied a career-high 15 points against UC Santa Barbara on March 2 for the Titans, who finished 10-20 overall and 6-14 in the Big West Conference.

Last Wednesday, Pali High boys coach and girls assistant LeBre Merritt, himself a proud Pali High alum, put Lagway through a rigorous training session that included a series of shooting, dribbling and screening drills.

“The biggest differences from high school to college were physicality and the speed of the game,” said Lagway, who was the Western League MVP and shared City Player of the Year honors with teammate Alexis Pettis as a junior at Palisades and earned All-City and All-State honors as a sophomore as well. “Also, the adjustments during the game.”

Lagway saw action in 29 games at Fullerton last winter, averaging 2.7 points and one rebound and was named to the All-Big West Freshman Team. One of her biggest thrills that season came in a 64-55 nonconference victory over Pepperdine and fellow Palisades alum Jane Nwaba, who just completed her senior season with the Waves.

“It was good to see Jane,” added Lagway, who made the All-City team after leading the Dolphins to the City Open Division semifinals her senior year. “We’ve both come a long way.”

Lagway is pursuing a degree in marketing and business and models her game after James Harden. Her success on the hardwood comes despite not having taken up the sport since seventh grade. She played club for West Coast Elite and her favorite movie is, fittingly, Love & Basketball.

Lagway was a freshman and Nwaba was a senior in 2018-19 when the Dolphins defeated Carson in overtime in the City Division I final, then advanced to the SoCal Regional finals. The next season, Palisades beat league rival Hamilton to win the City Open Division and won the regional title and in 2021 the Dolphins beat Hamilton again for the City Open title.

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

No school in the history of the City Section has won more boys golf championships than Palisades and the Dolphins are determined to add one more to their record total this spring.

The Dolphins have won 22 team titles since 1968 but Coach Dave Suarez laments that it is not 23. His squad was a heavy favorite to win for the third year in a row last May but got upset by Granada Hills—giving this year’s group all the motivation it needs to reclaim the trophy.

Suarez has one of his deepest teams ever. The roster features freshmen Cenna Austin, Cayden Kim and Jake Norr; sophomores Logan Eskigian, Ian Monahan, Cole Richter, Kaezan Shah and Grant Bigalow; juniors Jackson Bloom, Michael Conner, Mason Geller, Jacob Leatherman and Luke Schultz; and seniors Nic Wilson, Liam Husain and Levi Salzman. Suarez has the luxury of fielding many different lineups, with practice rounds determining who will earn spots in certain matches.

The Dolphins carried a 5-2 record into Wednesday’s league match versus Cleveland at Encino Golf Course. Palisades has defeated El Camino Real, Chatsworth, Cleveland and Brentwood. Its only losses are to Southern Section teams, Oaks Christian and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. The Dolphins’ match against Granada Hills at Knollwood was stopped prematurely because of lightning and has been rescheduled for May 3 at Griffith Park’s Harding course. The Dolphins take on Crossroads at Harding today and play Harvard-Westlake on Monday at Griffith Park’s longer Wilson course. Palisades will host Granada Hills on April 17 at Rancho Park and plays Windward the next day at Woodley Lakes. League Finals are May 9 at Harding and the City Finals are Wednesday, May 15, also at Harding.

The top two teams at City Finals qualify for the Southern California Regionals on Wednesday, May 22, at Los Serranos Golf Club’s South Course. Granada Hills has won the second-most City team crowns (13). Palisades won five in a row from 1982-86 and three straight from 2013-15. Since taking the reins from James Paleno in 2021, Suarez has piloted the boys to back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022 and the girls to three straight (2021-23).

Nothing compares to playing a sport that you are passionate about at the highest level. Jo Kremer did that at USC, leading the Women of Troy sand volleyball team to the AVCA national title in 2015 and back-to-back NCAA national championships in 2016 and 2017. Now, the Palisades native is putting her knowledge and expertise of the game to use in the coaching ranks.

In May, she was named an assistant coach for the Stanford University beach volleyball program and in her first season on the bench alongside head coach Andrew Fuller the Cardinal are off to a 21-3 start and ranked No. 2 in the country.

Kremer came to The Farm after a year as the assistant coach at Tulane in New Orleans, where she helped the Green Wave to their best season ever, finishing No. 17 in the nation after matching the program record for wins in a single season (24. She spent the summer of 2022 as the co-coach and chaperone for the USA Youth Beach Volleyball team’s three-and-a-half week trip to the Maccabi Games in Israel, during which she led her pairs to seven top-four medal finishes. Kremer honed her coaching skills at some of the best prep and club indoor and sand teams in California, including several years at her alma mater Harvard-Westlake High. She grew up in Marquez Knolls, went to St. Matthew’s School from Mommy & Me through 8th grade and spent many years at Sinjin Smith’s volleyball camp at Will Rogers State Beach. She made the Palisadian-Post Athletes of the Year list multiple times.

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Entering this season the Palisades High baseball team had not lost a Western League game since 2017. Last Friday, the Dolphins dropped their second league contest in two weeks as host Hamilton scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take the lead and hung on for a 6-5 win that knocked Palisaedes into second place in the standings.

“Twice we had the bases loaded and couldn’t score and we made a couple errors at critical times which cost us,” Coach Mike Voelkel said.

The visitors got off to a promising start when Logan Bailey blasted the first pitch of the game over the left field fence for a home run. Another run scored on a balk and before Starter Reece Frankel took the mound his team had staked him to a 2-0 lead. The Yankees got a run back on Jacole Wilson’s RBI double, but Hudson Ramberg scored on Isaic Buenrostro’s infield single in the second. Frankel walked in a run in the bottom half, but Ramberg’s sacrifice fly scored Ian Sullivan to give Palisades a 4-3 lead in the third.

After a sacrifice bunt scored a run and an RBI single tied the game 4-4, Wilson hit a two-RBI single off of reliever Alex Loos, who induced two pop outs to escape the jam. The Dolphins stranded runners at second and third in the fifth and Hamilton loaded the bases in the bottom half but failed to score. Bailey walked to lead off the sixth, Jack Kurland followed with a single and Roman Hawk walked. Conor Greene drew a bases-loaded walk to force home Bailey and pull the Dolphins within one, but a strikeout and ground out ended the threat. Hamilton left the bases loaded in its half, but after Ramberg singled to lead off the seventh he was caught stealing and

the next two batters were retired to give Hamilton its first victory over Palisades since an 8-4 win in 2015.

In the first of the two-game set last Wednesday, Conor Greene scored from third when the Yankees misplayed a pickle in the bottom of the seventh to give Palisades a 5-4 win.

Frankel doubled to lead off the sixth and scored on a sacrifice fly to tie it.

Palisades made seven errors in Saturday’s 11-2 home loss to Legacy.

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

It was a busy week for the Palisades High track and field teams as they continue to ramp up for the City Section prelims, which are one month away.

In a four-way meet last Wednesday at Venice, junior Jayden Joch won the varsity boys 400-meter dash in a personal-best 52.04 seconds, freshman Mako Holt won the 1600 in a personal-best 4:51.67, Isaiah Sensabaugh won the long jump with a leap of 18 feet and Yecnoh Koren was first in the triple jump (34-08). Mark Saba won the JV 1600 in a personal-best 5:17.68, Anton Andres (19.66) and Henry Kamer (20.88) were first and second in the JV 110 high hurdles and Ricardo Martin won the JV triple jump at 39-04.

For the girls, sophomore Annabelle Refnes won the varsity 800 meters in a personal-best 2:22.28, junior Cece Tierney won the 1600 in season-best 6:09.86, Refnes and senior Anisa Watkins both cleared five feet to take first and second in the high jump and Ayla Teegardin was second in the JV 400 in a PR 107.44.

Freshman Vitalija Schafer won the JV 800 in 2:47.42 while Violet Cash won the JV 1600 in a personal-best 6:03.21. Tenth-grader Maia Vasquez (19.42) won the JV 100 hurdles, Maleigha Hughes won the JV long jump (13-09) and Dylan Byford’s 4-04 effort was strong enough to win the JV high jump.

Two days later the Dolphins were in South Pasadena for the Tiger Invitational and among the notable performances was Ronin Sherertz taking fourth in the varsity 400 in a personal-best 50.21. Blake Sigworth (2:01.12) was 12th in the varsity 800 and second in the 1600 in a personal-best 4:22.58. Joch, Sherertz, Cole Hubbard and Harrison Carter (3:28.56) was third in the 4×400 relay. For the girls, Ava Bondar (51.20) was 15th in the varsity 300 hurdles, the 4×100 relay (51.64) was ninth and the 4×400 relay took sixth in 4:17.67.

Senior Max Fields ran one of the Open 3200 races at the Arcadia Invitaional and was 28th in 9:40.17.

Two All-Star basketball teams from the Palisades Recreation Center had their own “March Madness” by winning the West Region to make the Citywide Tournament.

The Co-Rec Minors squad, coached by Vijay Srinivasan and Brian Hansen, lost 28-27 to Pacific Region champion Rosecrans in the semifinals last week in Baldwin Hills. The roster consisted of Jace Hansen, Ben Ahdoot, Milo Irwin, Sina Naiem, Arjun Srinivasan, Justin Eghbal, Dylan Kroeger, Jackson Moore, Remy Moore and Levi Westgren.

The Girls Minors, piloted by Shelia Martin and Sean Cudzil, also fell in the semifinals, 10-3, to Metro Region winner Pan Pacific. The roster featured Nyla Smith, Emily Cudzil, Noe Snyder, Ella Edwards, Maggie Walsh, Coco Partovi, Olive Hyland, Charley Chou, Catie Sterparn and Piper Green.

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Prior to last weekend, Palisades High’s boys volleyball team had the inside track to the top seed in the LA City Section’s Open Division playoffs. That changed last weekend at the Chatsworth Invitational, where the host Chancellors avenged a three-set defeat to Palisades one month earlier in the semifinals of the Venice Tournament.

On Friday, Palisades did not drop a set in pool play, beating St. Monica, JW North and Eastvale Roosevelt.

The Dolphins had a more difficult time in the second round of pool play Saturday morning, surviving a scare against Birmingham (which had beaten Palisades at the Venice Tournament) before prevailing 25-18, 15-25, 16-14 and being pushed all the way in a 25-23, 26-24 victory over Golden Valley. The rematch between Palisades and Chatsworth was not as dramatic as the first encounter when the Dolphins rallied for an 11-25, 25-18, 17-15 triumph.

On Saturday, the host school won 25-16, 25-19 to secure first place in the pool and the Chancellors eventually reached the Gold bracket finals, losing 19-17 in the third set to champion Burroughs of Burbank.

Palisades, meanwhile, also qualified for the Gold bracket but was ousted by Simi Valley Royal in the first round, 27-25, 25-16. Royal then outlasted Eagle Rock, another City team vying for the No. 1 spot, before being swept by Chatsworth in the semifinals. On the other side of the draw, Burroughs took on Windward in the semifinals and survived 16-14 in the third set. Windward beat Palisades in three spirited sets in the championship match of the Venice Tournament. Marshall nearly beat Burroughs in the Gold bracket quarterfinals Saturday and strengthened its case for an Open Division berth come May.

Venice edged City foe Taft 26-24 on its way to capturing the Silver Division, downing Golden Valley 25-15 in the final. Shaking up the City rankings even more, VAAS shocked Birmingham 25-15 on its

march to the semifinals. Van Nuys Grant won the Bronze Division.

Despite losing twice at the Chatsworth Tournament, the Dolphins did clear a major hurdle on their quest for the Western League title with a 27-25, 25-18, 25-21 sweep of Venice on April 3. The Gondos had taken the first two sets before Palisades rallied to win the last three in the teams’ first league meeting.

Chatsworth and Palisades could face off a third time in the playoffs. The teams clashed in the City finals each of the last two seasons, with the Dolphins prevailing three sets to one in 2022 and the Chancellors sweeping 25-18, 25-22, 25-18 last spring at Cal State Northridge.

Despite dropping eight of its first 10 contests the Palisades High softball team is in contention for the Western League title. The Dolphins host defending champion Venice on Monday with a share of first place on the line. The Gondos prevailed 2-1 in a pitchers’ duel March 14 and the Dolphins are seeking revenge.

Coach Manny Flores entered his team in the TNT Tournament last month and although Palisades was only able to salvage one tie in five games (a 0-0 deadlock with Mira Costa), the Dolphins improved and since then have won three straight—outscoring league rivals University, Fairfax and Westchester by a combined 48-4. Today, Palisades hosts LACES, a team the Dolphins beat 24-3 for their first win on March 11.

In Monday’s 23-0 five-inning rout at Westchester, Celia Elisha had four hits and five RBIs, Olivia Stanley and Kharlee Sanders each had four hits and four RBIs and Rikka Richardson added three hits and four RBIs. Pitcher Brian Vasquez struck out 12 of the 18 batters she faced.