Brentwood School 10th-grader Amelia Sarkisian won the Gold Coast League cross country championship November 5, running the three-mile course on campus in a personal-best 17:01.40, over two minutes faster than runner-up Zooey Jeong of Viewpoint. The Eagles got second in team scoring, 17 points behind Viewpoint.
Sarkisian, who resides inthe Alphabet Streets and grew up playing basketball at the Palisades Recreation Center, won the league crown as a freshman as well and went on to sweep the 800, 1600 and 3200-meter races at league track finals last spring.
Sarkisian is enjoying a stellar sophomore campaign, having run 17:17.4 to win the White Varsity Girls A Division at the Woodbridge Classic on Sept. 21in Irvine and taking first in the Small Schools Division in a time of 18:46.5 at the Bellarmine/Sacred Heart Invitational in Griffith Park on Sept. 28. She was fourth in the D3,4&5 Individual Sweepstakes Red race at the Mt. SAC Invitational in 18:02.
Palisades High’s boys water polo team got all it could handle from Birmingham last Friday night but scored three times in less than one minute late in the fourth quarter en route to a 13-10 playoff victory at Maggie Gilbert Aquatic Center.
Charlie Speiser led the way with four goals for the No. 1-seeded Dolphins (12-16), including a 5-meter shot with 2:37 left. BenjaminMokhtar put the game out of reach on a bending shot just inside the far post one minute later. Hudson Mirzadeh and Jake Gallagher each scored three goals.
Palisades advanced to yesterday’s LA City Open Division final at Valley College against No. 2 Cleveland (16-9), which routed San Pedro 17-2 in the other semifinal.
The Dolphins entered Wednesday’s championship encounter as defending champions, having not lost in the playoffs since 2011. They won the inaugural Open Division title last fall while Cleveland tookthe Division I crown.
Wide receiver Max Hejazi stiff arms a defender to gain a first down. He caught seven passes for 93 yards and three touchdowns in the Dolphins’ three-point win versus 12th-seeded South East at Stadium by the Sea. Photos: Steve Galluzzo
Penalty Prone Dolphins Outscore South East 35-32 in First Round of City Division I Playoffs
By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
Having received the No. 5 seed in the City Section Division I playoffs the Palisades High football team hosted No. 12 South East in the first round last Friday night at Stadium by the Sea and the schools’ first postseason meeting was rightly one for the books.
Junior Jack Thomas completed 14 of 26 passes for 227 yards and four touchdowns—three of them to Max Hejazi—and Nico Townsley returned the opening kickoff 65 yards for another score as the Dolphins lived to swim another day with a 35-32 triumph. At times, Palisades was its own worst enemy, racking up nearly 200 yards in penalties, but every time a stop was needed the defense came through,led by linebackers Jake Treibatch (nine tackles) and Cash Allen (seven) and cornerback Connor Petoyan (six).
Junior wideout LeHenry Solomon scores on a 55-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter.
After Townsley’s runback and Jack Malloy’s point-after made it 7-0 only 12 seconds into the contest the Jaguars showed they would not go down without a fight, marching 66 yards in five plays capped by Edward Rivera’s five-yard run. His subsequent two-point run gave the visitors the lead, but not for long.
On the fifth play of its next drive Palisades re-took the lead on a 55-yard strike from Thomas to wideout LeHenry Solomon with 3:58 left in the first quarter.
Eddie Bryant Jr. returned the ensuing kickoff 60 yards to Palisades’ 5, setting up a 25-yard field goal by Bradley Villada that pulled South East within 14-11 late in the first quarter. Early in the second quarter, Hejazi caught his first touchdown pass on a 27-yard toss from Thomas, but the Jaguars (6-4) responded with another touchdown run by Rivera and Palisades led 21-18 at halftime. After the Jaguars turned irover on downs to begin the second half the Dolphins embarked on their best drive of the night, moving 75 yards in 13 plays and scoring on Hejazi’s juggling catch over the middle from 19 yards out to take a 10-point lead with 2:15 left in the third quarter.
Rivera’s third touchdown run cut South East’s deficit to 28-25 early in the fourth quarter but three and a half minutes later Thomas hooked up with Hejazi for the third time, this one from 14 yards out to makr it a 10-point margin. Rivera’s five-yard run with 3:25 left made it 32-25 but Augie Evans recovered the onside kick and a pass interference call on fourth down with 31 seconds left moved the chains and allowed Palisades (9-2) to run out the clock.
Junior quarterback Jack Thomas completed 14 of 26 passs for 227 yards and four touchdowns.
Harrison Carter carried the ball23 times for 101 yards and caught five passes for 60 yards. Ricardo Martin had a 19-yard reception and Hejazi finished with seven grabs for 93 yards.
Thomas was picked off late in the first half, only his third interception all season, and Carter was stoppedon the 1-yard line on the final play of the first half, keeping the Jaguars within one score. Through 11 games, Thomas has thrown for 34 touchdowns and rushed for eight.
The victory moved Palisades into the quarterfinals and the Dolphins will travel to fourth-seeded North Hollywood on Friday. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. The Valley Mission League champions (11-0) outscored Granada Hills 36-30 for the first Division I playoff win in program history. Nate Arlauskas threw for a pair of touchdowns and Daylan Garcia ran for 144 yards and two scores.
Top-seeded Eagle Rock survived a scare against No. 16 Crenshaw, 8-7, while No. 3 Venice was upset by 14th-seeded Franklin, 28-7.
Revere alum Val Ward was fourth overall and won a prize for his hot dog costume. He is now a freshman at Pali High. Photos by Steve Galluzzo
By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
More than 150 people signed up for Paul Revere Middle School’s fourth annual Family Fun Run on Saturday morning, November 2. P.E. teacher Paul Foxson sent the enthusiastic field on its way for a three-lap route around the campus, starting and ending on the athletic field, and breaking the tape in the 5K race was 32-year-old Ripley Sellers, who clocked 19:24.
Eighth-grader Mikael Khani was fifth in 21:08.Ally Humby (left) and sister Mila after the race.
“Under 20 [minutes] was my goal,” said Sellers, a Los Feliz resident who runs daily and was encouraged to enter by his girfriend Esmeralda, whose little brother Matteo is a sixth-grader at Revere. “I got a little tour of the school and got to see some normal folks on their morning runs and walks. What do I get? Coffee and a donut would be great!”
Greeting Sellers at the finish line was his 9-year-old boxer/chihuahua mix Ziggy. Sellers grew up playing AYSO in Burbank and grduated in 2010 from Campbell Hall in North Hollywood, where he ran cross country and played on the soccer team. “I like the mixed terrain with the gravel, rock, grass and pavement,” he said. “I know the Palisades… I have friends who live here.”
Alessandro Prilusky was third to finish in 20:47.Race winner Ripley Sellers with his dog Ziggy.
Sellers went to Vassar College in New York and is the associate editor of A Blog to Watch, a podcast that reviews and discusses wrist watches.
The first Revere student across the finish line was Alessandro Prilusky, who was third overall in 20:47—six minutes faster than his debut time last year. Shortly after, fellow eighth-grader Mikael Khani finished fifth in 21:08. It was his first time participating in the Fun Run, which he described as “confusing but fun.”
Prizes were awarded to the top four runners and the best individual costume and best family costume. Val Ward won for his head-to-toe Hot Dog outfit; Alyssa Scott Webster and Laura Scott ran as a Troll & Mom; Lilou Kahle donned a Cookie Monster suit and Maxine Fields dressed up as a clown.
Ward, who turned 15 three days before, was fourth in 20:50. “I ran it last year as a student here,” he said. The school recordholder in the 100 meters (11.44), Ward is now a freshman at Pali High, where he plansto run the 100, 4×100 relay and long jump in the spring.
Penelope Mihal stretches for a backhand in Palisades’ City Finals loss to Granada Hills. Photo: Steve Galluzzo
Heading into its annual City Finals showdown with Granada Hills on October 30, the Palisades High girls tennis team was supremely confident it could regain the Open Division championship the Highlanders wrested away last season. After all, the Dolphins‘ lineup featured two players who were not on the team a year ago—sophomore Shaya Jovanovic and freshman EJ Martin, who are friends and highly-ranked junior players. They combined to win five of seven singles sets but that was not quite enough to keep Granada Hills from repeating with a 17 to 12.5 victory in the round robin format at Balboa Sports Center in Encino.
The Highlanders’ No. 1 duo and reigning two-time City Individual doubles champions Georgia Brown and Priscilla Grinner rallied from a 4-3 deficit to beat Palisades’ No. 2 tandem of Sashi Gancheva and Penelope Mihal, 6-4, completing a sweep of their three sets (each worth one and a half points) and pushing their team past the 15-point threshold needed to clinch.The No. 2 team of Amy Nghiem and America Fragoso also swept and Sayuri Parandian won all four of her sets at No. 1 singles for top-seeded Granada Hills, which captured its 14th section crown and second straight in the four-team Open bracket. Palisades beat El Camino Real 25.5 to 2 while the Highlanders beat Marshall 26.5 to 3 in the semifinals two days earlier.
Parandian and Jovanovic met in the last rotation in the finals and the Granada Hills senior prevailed 8-6 in a tiebreaker. Martin was subbed out for her last set.
Ella Engel and Nicole Nguyen rounded out Palisades’ singles spots. Gancheva and Mihal beat the Highlanders’ third team as did Palisades’ top duo of Anais Israels and Anne Kelly and the No. 3 duo of Reese Trepanier and Dori Jamhedor. The Dolphins have won 29 section titles since 1973, including 21 under coach Bud King.
Palisades and Granada Hills have faced off in 13 of the last 14 finals and the two schools have combined to capture the last 23 upper division titles.
Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a “slow-moving” brush fire near 1400 N Palisades Drive in The Highlands, according to LAFD Spokesperson Margaret Stewart.
The fire, reported at 9:50 a.m. on November 13, was in “heavy brush adjacent to the reservoir” and is “topography (not wind) driven with steep slopes.”
By 10:57 a.m. more than 60 firefighters on scene had stopped all forward progress.
“The precisely targeted, rapid water drops from LAFD Air Operations combined with the firefighters’ aggressive fire attack on the ground held the fire to approximately one acre (revised from initial size up),” Stewart wrote. “No structures damaged and no injuries reported. Due to the steep terrain and the work required to conduct a mop up operation, all resources will remain on scene.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that forward progress has been stopped. Also, the fire was reevaluated from five acres to one acre.
Following two successful seasons in Los Angeles in 2022 and 2023, Astra Lumina returns to Palos Verdes for its third year as part of Moment Factory’s awe-inspiring Lumina Enchanted Night Walk series.
The international multimedia production studio is once again teaming up with the leading live entertainment discovery platform, Fever, to present this unique and immersive experience at South Coast Botanic Garden.
Part of a U.S. tour that has featured two seasons in Seattle, an upcoming debut in Dallas and more cities to be announced, Astra Lumina’s Los Angeles edition opens for night walks beginning November 8.
Through projections, lighting and music, visitors will encounter the illuminating wonder of the stars. The South Coast Botanic Gardenwill be transformed into an immersive outdoor world that awakens the imagination, inviting stargazers of all ages on a magical nighttime journey through the garden. Inside the experience, guests are guided on an illuminated nature pathway, with photo opportunities, gift shop, and food and beverage options available for purchase.
“Since 2014, we have created over 20 Lumina Enchanted Night Walks in a variety of outdoor venues. To date, Astra Lumina has been presented in four cities in the United States, demonstrating its universal appeal to a variety of audiences,” said Jonathan St-Onge, executive director at Moment Factory Originals. “This experience seeks to connect people to each other, to nature and to the stars, and so we are excited to return for a third year at South Coast Botanic Garden, a lush oasis with towering palm trees that truly sets the stage for a phenomenal event that embodies the spirit of LA.”
“As we bring Astra Lumina back to Los Angeles, we’re thrilled that it has become a beloved tradition for the community,” said Marina Tara, Fever’s head of creative studio and sr. director of production (U.S. and Canada). “The enthusiasm from visitors year after year fuels our passion to always raise the bar and offer an experience truly special for everyone to enjoy.”
Astra Lumina, created by Moment Factory, welcomes you to an extraordinary place, a garden here on Earth that shares a special connection with the sky above. Come nightfall, the garden sets the stage for a phenomenal event: a visit from the stars.
This stellar journey invites stargazers to set off across the garden’s celestial pathway to encounter the wonder of the stars and embrace their own human light. As the night unfolds, these luminous orbs regenerate, rise and reunite in the night sky to shine brighter than ever before.
Opening times: Various dates and times available on the Fever marketplace 45 to 60 minutes
Location & Opening Times: Standard tickets went on sale October 9, with prices starting at $21 for children and $29 for adults. Doors for the event opened on Friday, November 8.
“The Outsiders” will open at Palisades Charter High School on Thursday, November 7, for a two-weekend run.
The show, being performed as the school’s fall play, is adapted by Christopher Sergel from the S.E. Hinton book.
“The story deals with real people, seen through the eyes of young Ponyboy, a Greaser on the wrong side of life, caught up in territorial battles between the have-it-made rich kids—the Socs—and his tough, underprivileged ‘greaser’ family and friends,” read a synopsis. “While the Socs appear to have everything, the only thing a Greaser has is his friends. This is a play about young people who are not yet hopeless about latent decency in the midst of struggle.”
Additional performances will take place on November 8, 9, 14, 15 and 16. All shows start at 7 p.m.
Tickets are available for $10 for students and $17 for general admission. A VIP preferred seating ticket is available for $25.
The holiday 5K and 10K event will start promptly at 8 a.m. and is expected to draw 2,200 participants and 2,500 spectators across Pacific Palisades in what has become a community tradition dating back to 2013.
Each runner will receive a complimentary swag bag containing an event T-shirt, a chip-timed bib and other gift items. Results will be posted shortly after the race at paliturkeytrot.com/results.
Area organizations supported by the race include Friendship Circle Pacific Palisades and Los Angeles Fire Department Stations 23 and 69.
Event sponsors include Hästens, Equinox, Palisades Village, Bay Theater and Friendship Circle.
Packet pick-up will be at the Swarthmore Room at Palisades Village in the three days leading up to the event—Monday (November 25), Tuesday (November 26) and Wednesday (November 27).
Event organizers strongly urge runners to come to Palisades Village one of those days to pick up their gear early to avoid lines on Thanksgiving morning. Street closures will be in place from 5:30 to 11 a.m.
The race will start and finish at the 50-yard line at Stadium by the Sea. The 10K race course has been altered in 2024 to avoid the closure of Temescal Canyon Road.
Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a Sunset Mixer at Bruce Lurie Gallery in Pacific Palisades on Thursday, November 7, from 5 to 7 p.m.
The event invites community members to “mix and mingle” on the patio and inside the gallery, with an opportunity to meet local business owners and enjoy artwork by Jack Winthrop.
“Meet the owner and team, and enjoy the artwork while you network with PaliBu Chamber Members and other Malibu and Palisades entrepreneurs and business owners,” according to an event description. “Join us for networking, libations, appetizers and special cookie cakes by Bunce Bakes.”
Located at 873 Via De La Paz, Bruce Lurie Gallery focuses on “establishing emerging to mid-career artists specializing in cutting-edge pop art, street art, abstract minimalism, photography and a wide range of monumental sculptors,” according to its website.
“I try not to have anything that other art galleries have,” Lurie previously said to the Palisadian-Post. “I handpick every single artist I have … I work with some of the biggest artists in the country, I work with some amazing photographers.”
Tickets to the Sunset Mixer cost $20 for members and $30 for non-members.
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