Runners Hit Stride at Seaside: Ben Hamer Wins Junior Race; Brent Smith Third in Sophomore Division

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Showing why it is one of the favorites to win the City Division I championship come November, the Palisades High boys cross country team opened the season strong last Friday at the Seaside Invitational in Ventura.

No one was more impressive than Ben Hamer, who won the three-mile junior race in 14:52.3, the second-fastest time of the day at San Buenaventura Beach.

“I wanted to push it and see what I could do on this course,” said Hamer, who bettered by 20 seconds his unofficial time last year when the meet was halted right before his scheduled race because of extreme heat.

Hamer finished 3.5 seconds ahead of runner-up Ricardo Torres of Channel Islands. Palisades teammate Jake Greanias was 12th in 15:36.8.

Brent Smith won the freshman division at Seaside last season and wanted to win again as a sophomore Friday, but he settled for third place in 15:31.5 behind Temecula Great Oak’s Ryan Shields (15:15.5) and Tyler Tickner (15:24.8).

“I went too hard in the beginning to get the lead,” said Smith, who won the City 1,600 and 3,200 frosh/soph titles in the spring. “I prefer more of a hilly challenge like Woodbridge or Mt. SAC, but this was a good knock in the face.  Me and one other kid (Jose Rodriguez of McFarland) led for the first two miles but I got passed at the two-and-a-half mile mark. I’m not too happy with my time. My goal is to break 15 [minutes]. I didn’t play my cards right today.”

Jakob Pollack was seventh in the senior boys race with a time of 15:01.3, Jack Hockley was 26th in 15:45.5 and Ben Hansen was 28th in 15:48.2.

Making her Dolphins debut in the first race of the day was Sarah Bentley, who finished 10th in the freshman girls division in 19:22.7.

“I was really nervous at the start–my legs were shaking,” Bentley admitted. “I didn’t know where the end was. I was going to try to stay with the leaders but I went too hard the first mile and lost my pace. I haven’t run a 5K in a while so I didn’t have a great strategy. There was a long stretch running into the wind that tired me out. At the end I was using my arms, barely using my legs.”

Audrey Dang of Great Oak won in 17:37.4. Elisa Kim was Palisades’ next finisher in 20:22.8.

Brittany Darrow was 25th in the sophomore girls race, clocking  19:57.6. Skylar Smith ran 20.46.2 and Ellie Schultz was the Dolphins’ third finisher in 21:13.7.

Kimia Samandi was ninth in the junior division in 18:55.9, Lulu Takei clocked 20:55.6 and Ilaria Stewart ran 21:21.2.

In the senior girls race, Shannon Lee was 37th in 19:59.0 and Ariel Pollack (20:19.2) was the Dolphins’ second runner.

Palisades will be back in action Friday and Saturday in the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic at Silverlakes Sports Park in Norco.