Pali High Cross Country Teams Play It Safe for Section Prelims

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Palisades High cross country coach Bob Macias wants his varsity teams to be fully rested and ready for Saturday morning’s City Section finals, so he was satisfied with the Dolphins’ effort in last Wednesday’s preliminaries at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

The boys took second place in Heat 2 with 46 points, led by senior Ben Hamer, who won the hilly three-mile race in 15:56.40, just over one second ahead of Marvin Guardado from Birmingham. Granada Hills was first with 34 points. El Camino Real won the first heat with 35 points, paced by City individual favorite Justin Hazell (16:10.93).

Junior Brent Smith (16:42.04) was seventh in Heat 2, sophomore Alec Stewart was 10th in 16:48.81 and freshman Mason Cadden was 11th in 16:56.61. Rounding out the Dolphins’ scoring were freshman Lucas Shriver (17th in 17:03.72) and senior Finn Cawley  (17:41.38).

Half an hour later, it was the girls’ turn and even without one of their top runners (sophomore Sarah Bentley) they won their heat  with 42 points, 20 ahead of second-place El Camino Real. Freshman Miranda Schriver had the fastest time, winning in 18:46.76, over 20 seconds in front of Bianca Thiel from Taft.

Senior Kimia Samandi was third in 19:37.71. Elisa Kim was 11th in 20:53.26, followed by fellow juniors Skylar Smith (13th in 21:05.97), Jessica Bierschenk (21:17.01) and Brittany Darrow (22:54.15). Granada Hills, with  28 points, won Heat 1, led by Tanya Larbaoui (18:57.27)

The finals meet starts at 8 a.m. Saturday at Pierce. The Division I girls race is at 8:50 and the Division I boys race follows at 9:20.