BELL GARDENS INVITATIONAL 2021

Another change of venue for a major southern California invitational, the Bell Gardens moved from Cerritos to El Dorado East Regional Park in Long Beach for the 34th annual running this year. A long course (3.0274 miles) that runs even longer due to the ‘gopher fields’ and tight turns, City athletes nonetheless layed down some noteworthy performances.

BOYS RACES

The Palisades team was out in full force at the Bell Gardens Invitational on Oct. 16th. Sophomore **Max Fields** (748) of Palisades Charter once again had the best City performance on the day, finishing in 5th place and a time of 15:35.0 in the Senior race. Palisades took 2nd place in team scoring. (l-r) Max Fields (748), Noah Wexler (766), Dave Tobin (765), Alec Schmitt (762), Stewart Tierney (764), Josh Kovacs (751), Jeremy Santiago (760) and Jose Sevilla (763).

**Jose Sevilla** (763) had another huge performance and looks to be getting closer to the glimmers of excellence we saw back in 2018-2019. His time of 15:40.8 was the 2nd fastest for Palisades AND for City. That’s **David Tobin** (765) to his right who continues to impress after is break-out performance at Woodbridge. He broke 16 minutes again posting a time of 15:59.3.

**Francisco Rodriguez,** another sophomore running in the senior race, placed 11th in 15:50.0. Francisco led the Franklin team to a 5th place finish in the Senior race.

**David Martinez** was Franklin’s 2nd finisher in the Senior race placing 15th in 16:01.4.

Two of CIty’s top runners, Marshall’s **Finlay Robertson** (710) and Palisades’ **David Tobin** (765) ran most of the race side-by-side and finished 13th and 14th respectively in the Senior race.

**Panos Papadeas** of Marshall had another strong performance, finishing as the 10th fastest City runner on the day in 16:31.6.

Bravo freshman **Christopher Ramirez** warms-up with his team before the start of the Freshman race at the Bell Gardens Invite. He has the top freshman time in City (17:08.1) and took 4th at Bell Gardens in 18:24.8.

Hamilton’s **Dario Cruz-Santiago** was the top City finisher in the Junior race taking 12th place in 17:35.8.

**Quinn Casillas** of Marshall had a big PR at Bell Gardens taking almost 25 seconds off of his previous best to clock 17:51.7 and 14th place in the Junior race.

In a truly courages effort, **Fabrizzio Romero** finishes the Junior race in 17:56.5 WITH a mask!

*Team Rank Is based on hypothetical scoring assuming all City teams ran in the same race. Hamilton did not have 5 runners so the team was not ranked.

Palisades ruled the day in the boys team and individual races placing 2nd in the Senior/Varsity team standings to Ayala, claiming the top 2 individual City performances by Max Fields and Jose Sevilla, and posting 3 sub-16 minute performances. Marshall also ran well with Finlay Robertson beginning to find the form he showed in the 2019 City Finals. With teammates Panos Papadeas and Anton Hense continuing to improve the Barristers could be dangerous in November. In division 3, Franklin’s 2 stalwarts Francisco Rodriguez and David Martin continue to perform well and their #3 Henry Montano is making big improvements. Venice’s James Jimenez, one of the top division 2 returnees from 2019, ran well posting a 16:13.3 and appears to be trending in the right direction after his 16:41.9 Woodbridge performance. Freshman Paul Tranquilla, also from Venice, posted the top freshman time of 18:18.2 followed closely by Bravo Medical’s freshman Christian Ramirez in 18:24.8.

GIRLS VARSITY RACE

The Palisades and Marshall girls had big days at the Bell Gardens Invitational. Palisades took the Junior team and individual honors led by a 1-2 finish by Mollie Wittenberg and Ava Baak while Thea Amon-Franceschi and Gabrielle Canneson led Marshall. Bravo’s Angelica Milar was the top City girl finisher on the day placing 3rd in the Senior race. Sisters Sophia and Kelia Naranjo-Champion both posted top-10 City performances for their Garfield team.