Running Away with It

Fields Paces Pali High Boys to City Cross Country Crown; Girls Second

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Despite winning the City Section Division I cross country individual title for the second straight year Saturday, Palisades High junior Max Fields was more proud that the Dolphins defended their team championship.

After all, he still has another year to achieve all of his personal goals.

“I was hoping to break some of [former two-time City champion] Justin Hazell’s times, but I knew it was going to be tough today in this wind,” said Fields, who wore black mittens to keep his hands warm on a breezy morning at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. “We got the team victory and that’s the most important thing. The hardest part is the downhills—you get blasted by the wind and the dust flies in your face  and it’s hard to recover.”

Despite the challenges presented by the elements, Fields still clocked a personal-best 15:08.9, a 5:03 pace on the three-mile switchback course, to finish 36 seconds ahead of runner-up Adrian Sverlow-Men of San Pedro.       

“Last year I had to work for it—Austin really pushed me,” Fields said, referring to last year’s final when he overtook El Camino Real’s Austin Ledgerwood in the last quarter mile to win by three seconds in 15:22. “I was racing more for my team today/ We’ve built a great team culture here and we have big plans!”

The Dolphins placed five runners in the top 10 and six in the top 12 to win with a low score of 31. Granada Hills was second with 56 points and San Pedro took third with 73.

“It’s exactly what you want in terms of spacing,” Coach Rob Hockley said. “When there’s that small of a gap between your first and last runners you stand a good chance to win.”    

Feshman Zachary Cohen was the second Dolphin through the chute in 15:50.5 and sophomore Owen Lewicky (16:09.6) was three spots behind in seventh. Junior Axel Mammen (16:16.4) was ninth, Blake Sigworth (16:16.7) was 10th and fellow freshman Andrew Razo (16:25.8) was 12th. 

Sophomore Ben Barnett was Palisades’ last runner, finishing in 17:22.6.                      

Joining the boys at Saturday’s state meet at Woodward Park in Fresno will be the girls, who finished second behind defending champion Granada Hills, which placed four runners in the top 10 and won with a score of 37.

Senior Ava Baak was the Dolphins’ fastest runner, holding onto the No. 2 spot by less than a second over Granada Hills’ Naima Salazar in 18:38.6.

Granada Hills sophomore Meztli Velazquez won in 18:22.0.

Palisades junior Kyra Morris was sixth in 19:31.0 and the Dolphins’ next three runners were tightly grouped, as freshman Louisa Mammen was 13th in 20:11.5, senior Layla Adeli was 14th in 20:12.1 and junior Virginia O’Neill was 17th in 20:29.6. Sophomore Leena Adeli was the sixth runner in 21:06.0 and senior Mollie Wittenberg rounded out Palisades’ lineup in 36th place in 21:41.3. Palisades totaled 52 points.

“I feel pretty good,” Baak said. “I PR’d by four seconds coming off a cold so I’m happy with the results. It’s hard to pace yourself in these conditions. Our real competition was with Hamilton and Cleveland.”