Setting the Right Paces

Max Fields and Zoey Morris Win the 3200 Meters to Pace Palisades High at City Track & Field Championships

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Distance runners Max Fields and Zoey Morris are at the opposite ends of their Palisades High careers, but both had satisfying victories in the 3200 meters last Friday in the City Section Track & Field Championships at El Camino College.

Fields ran alongside teammates Blake Sigworth and Axel Mammen for the first four laps as the Palisades threesome took turns in the lead, but Fields took command with three laps left and won the race for the second time in 9:21.09. He also won it his sophomore year. Sigworth and Mammen finished second and third, and their combined points vaulted the Dolphins into second in the team standings over Carson.

“I ran 9:13 flat at Azusa Pacific so it’s pretty humbling,”  said Fields, a senior committed to the Air Force Academy. “I’d been out since Arcadia with a respiratory illness, then two weeks after that I got meningitis but since then I’ve had four weeks of training and it’s been the best  training of my life. I’m glad I won because it’s been awhile since I got an individual title.”

Fields fell ill the night before last year’s City finals and finished second to Owen Lewicky in the 3200. In the fall he was poised to win his third City cross country title but finished second to Joseph Vargas of Cleveland. So Friday, it was about redemption.

Morris, on the other hand, is only a freshman and has a long prep journey still ahead of her, but after winning the City cross country title in the fall she added another feat to her already impressive resume with a comfortable win in the girls’ race Friday, clocking 11:19.93 to beat Granada Hills sophomore Samantha Pacheco by nearly seven seconds in a rematch of their head-to-head duel in the cross country finals at Pierce College.

“I’m more of a cross country runner but it feels good to know I can do both,” said Morris, whose achieved her PR of 11:11 in the 3200 at Azusa Pacific. “I ran at my own pace and threw in a few surges here and there if I felt challenged.”

Morris showed resiliency after leading most of the race before settling for third in the 1600 meters earlier in the meet. Her older sister Kyra was fourth in the 3200 in 11:46.95, sophomore Louisa Mammaen (12:02.82) was sixth and freshman Gabriella Gilyard was seventh in 12:04.89.

Carson dominated the sprint events to win its ninth straight girls team title with 103 points. Granada Hills was second with 77 and Palisades was third with 63.

Mikayla Murphy was fourth in the 100 meters in 12.08 seconds and Skyla Jones was sixth in the 400 in 60.51. Sophomore Annabelle Refnes was second in the 800 meters in 2:20.73, ran the anchor leg on the Dolphins’ fourth-place 4×400 relay and cleared 4-10 to take third in the high jump. Palisades’ Rumya Elashoff, Kyra Morris, Daila Harinck and Refnes were first in the 4×800 relay in 9:55.28.

Granada Hills won the boys team title with 98 points, 44 more than the runner-up Dolphins.

Ricardo Martin was fifth in the long jump with a leap of 20-11.50, the Dolphins’ 4×800 foursome of Andrew Razo, Odino Spadavecchia,  Jackson Taylor and Axel Mammen was third in 8:30.53 and the 4×400 relay of Jayden Joch, Harrison Carter, Zachary Amster and Ronin Sherertz was third in 3:23.63.

Granada Hills’ Jordan Coleman completed a sprint “double” by winning the 100 and 200 and also ran in both the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.

Palisades’ 4×200 relay was fourth  and the 4×100 relay team was fifth. Andrew Razo was ninth in the 800 in 2:02.38 and Sherertz was third in the 400-meter dash in 49.76 and  ninth in the 200 in 23.86 seconds.

Doesey owns the record for most boys team titles (20), followed by Jefferson (17). Palisades captured  its only boys title in 2019. The Dolphins have also won three girls titles, in 2010, 2012 and 2013.

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