Starting Line

Max Fields Paces Pali High Cross Country in First Meet of Season

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

The reigning City Section cross country champion, Max Fields was hoping to pick up where he left off last fall—with a victory in his first race as an upperclassman. He came close, taking second place in the Small Schools Division at the 15th annual Great Cow Run held at Cerritos Regional Park, covering the three-mile course in 14:48.1. He was 29 seconds behind winner Jason Parra, a junior from Long Beach Millikan and was comfortably ahead of Arcadia seniors Brandon Chang (15:04.8) and Weber Lin (15:16.3), who were third and fourth, respectively. With a score of 86, Palisades  was third in the team standings behind Arcadia (43) and Millikan (44).       

It was a busy summer for Fields, who was second in the 5K at the Palisades Will Rogers Run on the Fourth of July. He overtook El Camino Real’s Austin Ledgerwood on the final hill to win the City title in 15:22.5 at Pierce College last November to complete an undefeated sophomore campaign against City competition. He was less confident entering the track season but still managed to edge Luis Sandoval of San Pedro to win the 3200-meter race by less than one second in 9:39.66 at City Finals in May in Lake Balboa. Fields expects a lot of himself for his junior year and did not disappoint in his first effort as an 11th-grader, despite not having teammate Jose Sevilla (who graduated in June after taking first in the 3200 at League Finals) to push him.   

The Dolphins’ second finisher on Saturday was freshman Brian Welsh, was 12th overall in 16:01.5. Junior Axel Mammen was 16th in 16:11.9 and sophomore Owen Lewicky was 21st in 16:23.4 while another freshman, Andrew Razo, also scored points for his team, coming in 38th after clocking 17:01.6. Tenth-grader Ben Barnett was 77th in 18:02.5 and senior Omar Juarez ran the course in 18:55.5 to place  107th in a field of 217 runners.

Zachary Cohen took second in the freshman race in 16:51.7. Fellow Dolphin Blake Sigworth was fourth in 17:29.9, Charlie Roarke was ninth in 17:57.5 and Roland Becking (18:12.6), Diego Calleja (18:13.7) and Odino Spadavecchia (18:14.3) placed 12th through 14th as Palisades won the team title.      

In the varsity girls race, Palisades was seventh with a score of 263. Sophomore Leena Adeli paced the Dolphins with a time of 21:22.4 to finish 41st. Giada Rice (21:43.6)  was 51st; Leena’s older sister Layla was 64th in 22:30.3; senior Victoria Hernandez was 68th in 22:52.0; senior Caily Galvez was 83rd in 23:19.0; senior Julia Musumeci (23:48.3) was 90th in a field of 174.

JW North senior Mackenzie Browne won the race in 17:13.1.

Three Dolphins were among the top 20 in the freshman girls race. Maribel Henderson-Maclennan was fourth in 21:32.6, Louisa Mammen (21:42.5) was fifth and Maya Bhasin (22:55.0) was 16th. Cecilia Tierney  (15:08.6) was 10th in the 1.8-mile sophomore race, won by Noelle Han  of Tustin in 14:18.4.