If anyone knows just how unpredictable the City Section cross country championships can be it’s Palisades High head coach Bob Macias — especially after the narrow margins of victory in recent years.
Although Macias downplayed the results in last Thursday’s prelims at Pierce College, he had to be encouraged by his team’s performances.
Freshman Brent Smith and junior Jakob Pollack took first and second and sophomore Ben Hamer was fourth in Heat 2 of the varsity boys Division I competition. Palisades finished second with 51 points, easily qualifying for Saturday morning’s finals, also at Pierce.
Smith ran the hilly course in 15:56.87, Pollack was stride for stride with his teammate in 15:56.97 and Hamer clocked 16:08.88. Rounding out the Dolphins’ scorers were junior Jack Hockley (15th place in 16:57.77), sophomore Jake Greanias (31st in 17:38.23) and senior Connor Smith (37th in 17:49.75). Sophomore Finn Cawley (19:13:82) was 59th in the heat.
Santee placed five runners in the top 10 and finished first in the team standings with 46 points.
City favorite Paul Luevano of Venice won Heat 1 in 15:13.04, the fastest time of the meet.
Although Smith had run a mile and a half at Pierce while at Paul Revere Middle School, prelims marked his first time running the full three-mile distance.
“The course was fine but the wind was a factor,” Smith said. “That last hill’s a challenge but it was nice having someone like Jakob to run with.”
In the varsity girls Division I competition, senior Emma Ulfvengren finished 12th in Heat 1 in 20:35.13, freshman Brittany Darrow was 14th in 20:43.13, junior Shannon Lee was 16th in 20:50.44 and senior Kiana Billot was 17th in 20:52.43 as Palisades took third with 79 points behind San Pedro (59) and Santee (72).
Tatum Colby was 25th in 21:25.62 and fellow junior Ariel Pollack was 27th in 21:28.55 as Palisades stayed tightly clustered. Like the boys squad, the girls qualified for Saturday’s finals, where they will try for their third straight title.
“At prelims you want to do enough to qualify [for finals], but teams are taking it easy so you don’t know,” Macias said. “We’ll have a shot in both races, we just have to run well.”
— Steve Galluzzo
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