El Dorado Park - Long Beach, CA
October 19th, 2024
BELL GARDENS Invite
Here are the top City finishers across all races at the ‘24 Bell Gardens Invite:
Palisades juniors BLAKE SIGWORTH and ZAC COHEN lead the ‘Senior ‘ race at 1 mile. The palisades boys won the race with 37 points, 59 points ahead of the #2 team.
Palisades sophomore ZOE MORRIS led a dominant Palisades girls team to 1st place in the Senior race. Zoe placed 2nd in 18:18.7
ALEXIS HUERTA finishes the Junior race at Bell Gardens . Alexis was the the top City finisher in the race placing 6th in 15:56.9.
SAMANTHA PACHECO passes the 1-mile mark in the Junior race. Sammy posted the top City time (and a course PR) at Bell Gardens placing 5th in 18:16.4.
The table below compares top overall and City Bell Garden performance for the last 4 years, 2021 - 2024:
ADRIAN AGUIRRE posted the 2nd best City sophomore time at El Dorado Park to place 6th in the Sophomore race in 16:07.8
GEORGIA ILLINGWORTH placed 17th in the girls Sophomore race to lead Kennedy and all City runners with a time of 21:12.7.
Bell Gardens Preview
Here’s a quick primer on Saturday’s Bell Garden Invite at El Dorado Park. The table below shows top overall and City performances for each race for the 3 years 2021-2023.
The race of the day is the Senior Boys Race at 9 am. This race is loaded with some of City’s absolute best, anyone of who can win this race. Top contenders include OWEN LEWICKY (Palisades), EVAN HADEISHI (San Pedro), CHARLES SIMON (Venice) and DANIEL RAMIREZ (Granada Hills). Palisades juniors BLAKE SIGWORTH and ZAC COHEN may be crashing this party so they’ll be contending for the win as well and ROLAND BALDERAS (Santee) and CHRISTOPHER FRELIX (San Pedro) won’t be far behind. This should be a barn burner!
The Girls Senior race should also show well for City with top ranked runners MEZTLIE VELAZQUEZ (Cleveland) , ANGELES FELICIANO (Santee) and KELIA NARANJO-CHAMPION leading the charge. As in the boys race, Palisades may be bringing their younger runners into this race so look for ZOEY MORRIS and LULU MAMMEN to challenge for the top spots.
ALEXIS HUERTA (Birmingham) will have his work cut out for him in the Boys Junior Race but he has the talent and on the right day he can win this race. Cleveland’s NATHANIEL MELGOZA and Granada Hill’s JOAQUIN ORTEG-TOMOSELLI should place in the top 5.
SAMANTHA PACHECO (Granada Hills) is the de facto front-runner in the Girls Junior Race. Teammate SOPHIA BATTLE should place in the top 3 followed closely by ANANYA BALARAMAN (North Hollywood) and YESENIA VALDEZ (Birmingham) and EMILY GURROLA. These girls have the potential to go 1-5.
ADRIAN AGUIRRE (Santee) should win the Boys Sophomore Race going away. Look for DANIEL SALAZAR (Birmingham), AIDAN MATUL-BARRIOS (Granada Hills), and ZACHARY MACGRATH (San Pedro) to compete for a top 5 finish.
LA City INDIVIDUAL Rankings - October 16th
The individual grade-level rankings below are based on results posted in athletic.net as well as times provided by coaches, as of October 16th.
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