Coach Rob Hockley - Palisades Charter
2014 - 2024
Aspirations and Reality
The picture above is one of my favorites over the last 4 years . . . . maybe THE favorite! Not because it’s a great image, (truth be told it’s slightly out of focus and the white balance is way off) but because it captures a moment between coach and athlete that spoke to all that had transpired in the ‘23 XC season: the highs, the lows, the tribulations, and the successes. This photo was taken minutes before the City Championship when Max Fields was attempting an unprecedented 3rd straight individual title. Like many moments in running, aspirations and reality did not align that morning. And they didn’t align this week with the news that Rob Hockely is leaving the Palisades running program after a decade of service as assistant and head cross-country coach. A decade nearly unmatched by any City coach in terms of both individual and team performances. I’ll forego additional adulations and best wishes until official notice is posted, with the calculation that something will change in the meantime. For the sake of Palisades and City.
State Highlights
Sammy Pacheco
Granada Hills D1 - 51st 18:34.8
Olivia Corrigan
Eagle Rock D2 102nd 19:31.9
Mario Aluizo
Narbonne D2 57th 16:01.5
Amber Lopez
Verdugo Hills D3 153rd 20:51.7
Canoga Park
LA City Section D2 Champions
Joaquin Tomaselli Andrew Razo
Granada Hills D1 99th 16:11.0 Palisades Charter D1 111th 16:17.1
Orion Perez
Mendez D3 160th 17:01.8
Trinidad Montenegro
Granada Hills D1 134th 19:46.3
Samuel Bravo
University D3 205th 18:12.4
Rose Matheu
Larchmont Charter D5 64th 20:03.0
CIF State Championships
Woodward Park - Fresno, CA
Saturday, December 30th, 2024
If I’m being honest the State Championship felt a little underwhelming. Not sure if it was the weather, or the come-down from the amazing City Finals, or the mediocre team performances, or missed opportunities for record-setting individual performances. Maybe all of that. On the last point, to be fair, the ability to run a top-tier City and State final race seems to be an alchemy very few City runners have figured out; a sentiment bore out by the fact that only 4 City boys have run faster than 15:20 in the 36 years City has competed at State and only a single City girl has broken 18 minutes. For reference, 47 boys ran faster than 15:20 across all divisional races on Saturday and 60 girls ran faster than 18 minutes. The final mile appeared to be the death knell for many City runners. In the girls D1 race, 11 of the top 15 girls lost an average of 8.4 positions in the last mile. The D1 City boys did slightly better, 9 City runners in the top 15 lost ground in the final mile by an average of 6.3 places. So work to be done here for sure.
But, as a I teased out the numbers from the ‘24 State Championship is wasn’t all doom and gloom. This year City runners posted the most top 100 City performances of any year since 1988, 10 for the boys and 9 for the girls. These included Palisades runners BLAKE SIGWORTH and MAYA HIVELY who both posted the top City times on Saturday and earned Top-10 all time rankings in the process. Check out the tables below for the new additions to the State Top 100.
Here are the updated top 100 All-Time State performances by City Athletes, including 19 new entries from this year’s Championships. Athletes highlighted in blue are the 2024 additions.
Top State Performances
As a primer for tomorrow’s CIF State Championships here’s your 2024 CIF LA City Section qualifiers for the State Championship at Woodward Park in Fresno:
Girls State Qualifiers
Boys State Qualifiers
On a perfect morning for running Venice senior PAUL TRANQUILLA executed a flawless race plan, taking control from the start and then pulling away from the lead pack in the last 800 meters to post the 3rd fastest 3-mile high school time on Pierce ever, 14:44.6. It had been 8 years since anyone broke 15 minutes on Pierce (Justin Hazell - ‘16 ECR 14:47.9) and 15 years since anyone had dipped below 14:50 (Pablo Rosales - ‘09 San Pedro 14:31.3). Paul also broke the Venice course record formally held by another Paul, City great Paul Luevano 2015 15:01.2.
And if the headline reads like trite hyperbole, based only on a single outlier performance, know that the 2024 Los Angeles City Finals was in fact the fastest boys championships ever on the 3-mile course, based on several metrics. That goes all the way back to 1976 when CIF and the LA City section moved from a 2-mile to 3-mile standard course length.
Overall, 23 boys ran faster than 16 minutes on Saturday, beating a record set in the 1982 season when Belmont great Roman Gomez was in his first year running as a sophomore at the dawn of the Belmont dynasty. The mantra 20<16 is dead - the new goal 30<16!
Here’s a list of all the City runners that ran under 16 minutes at the City Championships:
Blue Highlight denotes school course record
Included in these 23 performances were 2 that broke 15 minutes, a feat accomplished only 3 other times in City history - 1978, 1982 and 1983. And truthfully, that should have been 4 runners on Saturday . . . at least! Second place finisher CHRISTOPHER FRELIX now ranks with the absolute elite of City XC legends posting a mind-blowing 14:53.0. He’s 2nd on San Pedro’s all-time XC performance list (a pantheon of City distance running) behind only the Pierce record holder Pablo Rosales.
But maybe the most impressive metric, the top 10 performances across all boys divisions this year produced the fastest average time in 48 years, 15:13.2/runner. All-in all, really remarkable stuff!
Almost lost among all of these great performances, the Palisades boys romped to their 4th consecutive D1 team title. Belmont is the only other team to accomplish this and they did it twice, in 82-88 and again in 95-01. And while Palisade’s time wasn’t quite as fast as last year’s record-setting team time there were superlative performances from BLAKE SIGWORTH (15:04.7) and OWEN LEWICKY (15:24.2) who both set course PRs. The team won their title with only 1 senior and 3 underclassmen. Two of the underclassmen broke 16 minutes including freshman ETHAN FUNK 15:54.8 (only the 4th freshman to ever run a sub-16 at a City Finals) and sophomore MAKO HOLT 15:50.5.
After her Prelim race last week, North Hollywood junior ANANYA BALARAMAN commented how strange it felt to be out in front (she won by almost 40 seconds). Well, my guess is she got used to it pretty quickly because in the Championship race 1 week later Ananya sprinted to the front and by the 1st mile had a commanding 30-meter lead which she never gave up, crossing the finish line in a PR of 17:38.9. Only 6 girls have ever run faster in the 40 years that girls have been running 3-miles at City Finals (girls began running 3 miles in 1984). On almost any other team this would be a school record but North Hollywood is home to one of City’s greats, Natalie Stein, who ran a then course record 17:13.6 in the 2000 City championships. Some incentive for Ananya’s senior year :)
That was a lot! But the biggest news might be the girls D1 race. If there was a consensus lock for the girls D1 team title this year it was Palisades Charter. Palisades had 5 girls returning from last year’s dominant championship team and a phenomenal group of incoming freshmen. If 3 girls tripped and 2 were sick Pali still had enough horse power to win, in theory. Well that’s about what happened on Saturday and turns out they did not. And that’s not to diminish the accomplishments of the 2024 D1 City Champions Granada Hills. The Granada Girls put on a show for the ages and unlike some other years saved their best for the big dance. They ran an almost perfect race with 4 of their top 5 posting course PR’s. SAMMY PACHECO led the Highlanders with a 2nd place finish but honestly she wasn’t going to determine the team standings; she’s so far out front that 30 seconds slower or faster is only a couple of points in team scoring. It was REECE TRICE, SOPHIA BATTLE, KIANA DIAMOND and freshman TRINIDAD MONTENEGRO who won the day. Reece, Sophia and Kiana were running big PR’s earlier in the season and continued to improve over the last month culminating in their top performances on Saturday. These 3 are super talented athletes that are finally starting to show their potential. Four of these 5 girls are back next year so the fun is just starting!
More to come . . .
‘24 LA City Champions
City Final Qualifiers
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Boys Div 1
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Boys Div 2
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Boys Div 3
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Boys Div 4
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Boys Div 5
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Girls Div 1
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Girls Div 2
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Girls Div 3
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Girls Div 4
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Girls Div 5
The top 4 scoring teams in each heat automatically qualify for the City Finals this Saturday, November 23rd. The next 3 fastest teams across all heats within a division based on team-time also qualify (see blue highlights). Individual athletes that placed in the top 10 in their respective heats and whose team did not qualify may run as individuals in City Finals; these athletes are listed at the bottom of the team qualifiers.
LA City Section Prelims
Pierce College
Saturday, November 16th, 2024
Though the level of competition at City Prelims is often tempered with the high ranking teams running through the event in preparation for Finals and State, this year proved to be the exception. Some of City’s top ranked athletes posted PB’s while rising stars showed they have the potential to shake things up next Saturday. Here are some of the notable performances from the City Prelims.
In the 1st heat of the D1 prelim PAUL TRANQUILLA ran the fastest time at Pierce since 2016, 15:03.0, just missing the Venice school record by less than 3 seconds. For perspective, only 14 City athletes have EVER run a faster time on the 3-mile Pierce course, and only 3 have run faster in the last 20 years.
In D5, ANGEL SOLORIO (Sun Valley Magnet) set a school and division record (3rd time he’s done this in 3 weeks) in 16:00.7. More perspective, only 5 years ago low-17’s won the D5 City Final, this year 4 runners broke 17 minutes in Prelims including DANIEL MARTINEZ, ANGEL JUAREZ, and JONAH VASQUEZ. Look for Solorio and Martinez to be the 1st D 5 sub-16 minute runners at the ‘24 City Finals next week.
ANANYA BALARAMAN ran the fastest girls time of the day in the D1/H1, 18:38.0, in an incredibly controlled tune-up to what should be a sub-18 minute City Final. And that’s conservative - she already has a hand-timed PR of 18:00.0 minutes on Pierce. SCARLET HARRIS placed 3rd in the D1/H2 race in a 43-second PR of 18:48.1 and like Ananya she is still miles away from her potential.
We took notice of MARIO ALUIZO back in 2022 when as a sophomore he placed 11th in the D1 City finals. His school Narbonne now competes in D2 and if Mario’s prelims performance is any indicator (he won the D2/H1 race in 15:57.9) he should be in the running for an individual title next week. He’ll have a bunch of competition from Monroe, Santee and Marshall but Mario is a supremely talented athlete who could be running low 15’s if fully dedicated to running.
Speaking of the Santee boys ROLAND BALDERAS and sophomore ADRIAN AGUIRRE controlled the D2-Heat 2 race from the start to finish comfortably in 1st and 2nd with Pierce PR’s but well off potential. Both of these runners should clear 16 minutes at City Finals, by a lot!
Likewise, the Monroe boys barely broke a sweat on their way to qualifying for City Finals with a 2nd place finish in the D2-heat 1 race. JORGE MONTENEGRO, SEBASTIAN PEREZ and RAUL SANCHEZ will be minutes faster come Saturday with team and individual titles at stake.
Not even a month ago we had Bravo Medical’s girls ranked 3rd in D2 and well out of the running for a City title and State qualification. That was a big change from the #1 ranking they earned on the LAXC.com Pre-Season Power Rankings. Well, we should have stuck to our guns. In scratch-sheet scoring based on Prelim results Bravo is only 1 point off of #1 Canoga Park and trending upward. JASMINE HERNANDEZ has led the Knights all year but ANGELIQUE MORALES, JAEYLYN ARDON and EVELYN GILS’ late-season improvement have greatly helped their cause and will be pivotal in determining the D2 City championship on Saturday.
Larchmont senior ROSE MATHUE ran 5 minutes 18 seconds faster than her Prelim time last year to win the D5/H2 race in 19:22.8 PR, a school record and only 15 seconds off the D5 Pierce course record. Prelims was only her 4th time running Pierce and so it’s very likely we could see a sub 19-minute D5 performance for the 1st time next Saturday.
The San Fernando running program is on the upswing led by an impressive girls team that had the 3rd best D2 team-time at Prelims and the 7th best time across all divisions. Their top 3 - seniors ALYSSA SANCHEZ, SAMIRA GARCIA and EVELYN RODRIGUEZ - all broke 21 minutes finishing within 20 seconds of each other in Heat 2.
Belmont’s top 2 boys SANTIAGO BARRIOS and EDWIN GOMEZ both broke 17 minutes in the D4-Heat 2 race, a milestone rarely achieved in the D4 Championship race let alone prelim.
Granada Hills did not run their top 3 boys or girls at Prelim but will be ready to secure their State bids next Saturday led by SAMMY PACHECO who will also be looking for her 1st individual title.
The San Pedro boys cruised the 1st 2-miles of the D1H1 prelim race and finished hard coming off of Chalk Hill. This is a menacing team led by EVAN HADEISHI and CHRISTOPHER FRELIX that will be in the fight for both team and individual City titles on November 23rd.
In most years running 19:08.8 in a D2 girls prelim would have earned top seed. Unfortunately for Esteban Torres senior SAMANTHA AVILA she was matched up with Canoga Park and settled for 2nd place. Her time Saturday was almost 2 minutes faster than her Prelim time in ‘23 and ranked her as the 7th fastest performance across all divisions.
Here are the top 10 finishers across all divisions from the Los Angeles City Section Prelims this morning. More to come!
Boys
Girls
Final LA Section Power Rankings - All Divisions
These are the final LACXC.com Power Rankings leading into the LA City Section Championships on Saturday, November 23rd, 2024. The rankings are based on league final results, noteworthy regular season performances, and adjustments for runners who either did not run league finals or tactically under performed. The arrows indicate ranking trends since the pre-season LACXC.com Power Rankings. Best of luck to all City athletes!
POST SEASON HAS ARRIVED!
Team League Champions
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Girls Team Champions
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Boys Team Champions
League Final Images - Pierce, Wednesday
GIRLS-Valley Mission &
Western League
BOYS-Valley Mission &
Western Leagues
BOYS - East Valley
& Northern Leagues
GIRLS - East Valley
& Northern Leagues
League Final Images - Pierce, Thursday
BOYS - West Valley
GIRLS - West Valley
Central Valley, North Valley, Valley
Once the dust settled (Literally) 3,215 athletes from 139 teams representing 21 leagues had finished a qualifying league event. The tables below rank the top 10 boys team and individual performances across all LA City Section league finals at Elysian Park, Peck Park and Pierce College on Wednesday, November 6th and Thursday, November 7th, 2024.
CITY GIRLS
CITY BOYS
Thursday Recap - Pierce
Windy conditions persisted but the Thursday races did not disappoint. Returning after a 2 week vacation SAMMY PACHECO looked stronger than ever to win the first race of the day in 18:29.0 and earn her 2nd West Valley league title. Cleveland’s MEZTLI VELAZQUEZ placed 2nd in the race with the 4TH fastest D1 time across all Pierce league finals. Granada duo SOPHIA BATTLE and REECE TRICE continue to excel and both set Pierce PR’s on Thursday. ECR sophomore SCARLET HARRIS placed 5th in a PR of 19:31.3; Look for Harris to make big improvements over the next 2 weeks and a top-10 placing on November 23rd.
In the boys West Valley varsity race, Taft junior HUNTER BENNET took the individual league title in a brilliantly executed run that earned him a Pierce PR of 15:41.6. Hunter drafted behind Granada Hill’s lead runners for 2 miles and than on the final down hill made his move to the front that he took to the finish line. Hunter’s victory is only the 2nd time in 48 years that a Taft athlete has won the West Valley boys varsity race (Daniel Clements-2000 was the first). JOAQUIN ORTEGA-TOMOSELLI and DANIEL RAMIREZ both posted Pierce PR’s to place 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Later in the afternoon ANGEL SOLORIO (Sun Valley), DANIEL MARTIN (Community Charter) and JOSEPH JUAREZ battled it out for D5 bragging rights. Solorio won the race and the Central Valley title in 16:17.7; close to his Pierce PR from last week, 16:03.0, which is a D5 course record. Martin took 39 seconds off his Pierce best to place 2nd in the race in 16:39.0 and win the North Valley league title. Joseph finished 3rd in the race and 2nd in the Central Valley league in 16:57.9.
Big Races on Wednesday
Wednesday Recap
Though the temperatures at Pierce were ideal on Wednesday the winds were hurricane force, particularly on top of the hill. In spite of the winds and dust the races were some of the best all year and individuals managed to run PR’s. The schedule of races was different than describe below the East Valley and Northern leagues ran together in each of the FS, JV and Varsity races and the Valley Mission and Western Leagues ran together in separate races. North Hollywood’s ANANYA BALARAMAN led from start to finish to win the combined East Valley/Northern and the East Valley league title. This is the first race we’ve seen her in since September and she looked in top form. Eagle Rock freshman OLIVIA CORRIGAN placed 2nd in the race to win the Northern league title in a gutsy race in which she took the lead on the 2nd mile through the switch backs. Monroe senior NAYELLY FLORES placed 3rd in the race and 2nd in the East Valley league. All 3 of these girls posted Pierce PR’s on a less than ideal day for racing.
Note: Amber Lopez (Verdugo Hills) did not run in the League Finals.
The boys East Valley/Northern league race had some of the favorites winning but also revealed some untapped talent. Monroe’s JORGE MONTENEGRO earned his 2nd East Valley league title in a smart race that didn’t earn a PR but got the job done. The big surprises were Monroe junior RAUL SANCHEZ who led the race through 1.5 miles and finished in 2nd place in the combined and East Valley league with a 32-second Pierce PR of 16:23.2. Similarly, Eagle Rock’s OLIVER BARR showed some of his potential to win the Northern League title in 16:26.9; the 1st win for an athlete fully capable of breaking 16 minutes. Monroe’s SEBATIAN PEREZ finished 3rd in the race and in the East Valley league with a performance he’ll be looking improve on come November 23rd.
The girls combined Valley Mission/Western varsity race was a shoot-out between the reigning City D1 XC champion ZOEY MORRIS (Palisades Charter), the top-ranked D2 athlete ANGELINA LOPEZ (Canoga Park), and upstart freshman MAYA HIVELY (Palisades Charter). These 3 broke from the pack early and ran together until about 600 meters when Lopez surged in front and never looked back. Lopez set a PR, the Canoga Park Pierce record, and the ‘24 City top mark of 18:19.5 on a truly miserable day for running. Sub 18-minutes in 2 weeks!
The tables below rank the top 10 performances across all League Finals at Pierce on Wednesday, November 6th, 2024:
Wednesday Preview
The Valley Mission, East Valley and Northern leagues typically compete in a single varsity league final race at Pierce and if the tradition continues this will pit Canoga Park’s ANGELINA LOPEZ, Verdugo Hill’s AMBER LOPEZ, North Hollywood’s ANYANA BALARAMAN, Monroe’s NAYELLY FLORES, and Eagle Rock’s OLIVIA CORRIGAN against each other in head-to-head competition. These are absolutely some of City’s best athletes and this mash-up only happens once a year at league finals. Side note: Amber Lopez ran 18:47.0 at a dual meet at Pierce last week; a performance that would have placed 2nd in the D2 City finals last year.
The Monroe boys led by SEBASTIAN PEREZ and JORGE MONTENEGRO will be racing each other for league bragging rights but Marshall’s BAO LE and RYE JUNKER have made big improvements this year and posted PR’s last week in a dual meet; they will keep it interesting. Kennedy sophomore MATEO CEDILLO and Bravo Medical senior CHRISTOPHER RAMIREZ are both within range of a top 3 place and also showing big improvements headed into November. Looking for more than a couple sub-16 performances on a day that should be perfect for racing.
Later in the afternoon the Western league competes with 2 of the D1 powerhouses going head-to-head in the boys varsity division: Palisades Charter and Venice. Venice’s PAUL TRANQUILLA and CHARLES SIMON have been impressive in the big meets this year and we are expecting nothing less on Wednesday. The Palisades boys will win the team competition but it will take a special performance by BLAKE SIGWORTH, OWEN LEWICKY or ZAC COHEN to win the individual league title. This should be a good one!
The Palisade’s girls will coast to easy team and individual Western league wins and in the past have used this race as a tune-up for City Finals. Expect the usual suspects ZOEY MORRIS, LULU MAMMEN, ELEANOR MAMMEN, and DAILA HARINCK to pack it in and cruise to the finish line. Hopefully we’ll see MAYA HIVELY and GABRIELLE GILYARD run for the 1st time since September and if so look for both to run this all out. Venice’s JADE FLORES and Hamilton’s MARIA CRUZ SANTIAGO should keep the race honest.
INVIITE HIGHLIGHTS
BELL GARDENS
BELL -JEFF
CENTRAL PARK
WOODBRIDGE
‘The Drive’
Is dedicated to LA City’s high school distance running community
The goal is to evangelize exceptional teams and athletes with high quality, curated content and editorial perspectives in an online periodic publication.
Each volume will include a ‘Special’ section, as well as Athletes of the Week/Month, ‘The Week in Pictures’ including a ‘Picture of the Week’, ‘The Numbers’, and ‘Heard on the Trail’.
ENJOY!