North Hollywood junior ANANYA BALARAMAN ran a 1:06.53 400m split in the 800m at the Irvine ASICS Invitational then made a move from 4th to 2nd on the backstretch to nearly take the win in the last 100m. Her time of 2:15.56 is #1 in City, #9 in State and broke the previous invite record. And, Ananya qualified for the Arcadia Invitational next month.
Rob Hockley out as Pali XC Coach
In a little more than a month, Rob Hockley has been removed as distance coach from the Palisades Charter Track and Field team and as of today, March 13th, 2025, is out as head coach of the XC team for the ‘25 season, without cause. Like many City coaches, Rob did much more than train athletes. He worked 24/7 as administrator, therapist and mentor to develop some of the greatest boys and girls teams and individuals in LA City distance running history. That type of CV doesn’t happen by accident or just because a program has talented kids. The City section is littered with teams and individuals that had the potential but never panned out or should have won but never did. Producing results is the hallmark of greatness and Rob Hockley has produced top-tier results in every aspect of the Palisades distance program. Coach Rob delivered! And not to miss the bigger picture but in light of the tragedy the Palisades community is enduring right now the timing could not have been worse!
RUNNERS SET . . . .
Arcadia Qualifying was on the mind of most of City’s top athletes this past weekend and 3 venues looked prime to serve up top performances: Irvine ASICS , Redondo Nike and Don Green Invitationals. In addition to ANANYA BALARAMAN (profiled above), PAUL TRANQUILLA is the only other current City runner to qualify for Arcadia, in both the 800m and 1,600m. Paul ran incredible final laps in both the 1,600m and 800m at Irvine on Saturday to post City-best times of 4:15.87 and 1:55.87 (both PR’s). Paul’s teammate CHARLES SIMON was close to qualifying in the 3,200m, posting a 9:25.48 in the 3,200m at the same meet, just 1.19 seconds off the Arcadia standard. BLAKE SIGWORTH (Palisades runner currently running for Palos Verdes) posted a big PR at Redondo to qualify for Arcadia, placing 10th in the 3,200m in a 10-second PR of 9:17.60 . Up in Moorpark at the Don Green Invite, Cleveland’s MEZTLI VELAZQUEZ and Granada’s REECE TRICE edged closer to 800m qualifying times with PR’s of 2:22.34 (City #2) and 2:23.72 (City #3), respectively. The Meet of Champions on March 22nd at the new venue (Arroyo HS with a new world class track) may be the final chance for City athletes to qualify.
Here are the minimum Arcadia standards for 2025:
Boys Girls
800M 1:56.99 2:17.27
1,600M 4:21.00 5:02.99
3,200M 9:24.29 11:02.99
Some noteworthy performances this week . . .
Cleveland senior MEZTLI VELAZQUEZ is back on top of the City rankings in the 1,600m with a 5:17.02 effort at Don Green. Granada senior REECE TRICE posted PR’s in both the 800m (2:23.72) and 1,600m (5:28.87) at Don Green. Reece is now in the top-5 City rakings for the 800, 1600 and 3200m. The D3 Mendez boys distance program continues to impress. DEMITRI HERNANDEZ doubled in the 1,600m and 3,200m at Irvine ASICS in 4:45.86 and 10:06.64 and ORION PEREZ set a PR in the 3,200m at the same meet in 9:54.57 (#4 City). Nice performances! A slew of girls broke 2:30 in the 800m this past weekend; SCARLET HARRIS (ECR-2:27.17) and KIANA DIAMOND (GHC-2:27.46) at Don Green and VITALIJA SCHAFER (Palisades-2:29.81) at Redondo. Eagle Rock freshman OLIVIA CORRIGAN had big performances at Redondo in the 3,200m on Friday night (11:38.89 #2 City) and the 1,600m on Saturday afternoon (5:35.20 #7 City). Another freshman with a familiar name, Granada’s MIA ABREGO ran 12:03.01 at Don Green (#6 in City) to add to the 5:38.04 she ran in the 1,600m two weeks ago.
Former City athlete OMAR FABILA, who ran for D3 Roybal Learning back in ‘22 and now runs for southern section Cathedral, posted a 9:11.13 in the 3,200m at Redondo on Friday night. If runners like Paul Tranquilla, Charles Simon and Ananya Balaraman aren’t evidence that mileage matters, Omar should make the point very clear!
Irvine ASICS Invitational
Irvine High School - March 8th, 2025
Venice senior CARYS WILSON posted a 5:54.79 PR in the heat 2 of the 1,600m at Irvine ASICS.
DAVID GARCIA set a PR of 5:09.66 in heat 2 of the 1.600m.
Venice senior ELLA SENELICK rounds a turn on the 4th lap of heat 2 in the 1,600m at Irvine ASICS.
Venice senior ERIC SMITH won heat 6 of the 400m in 52.78; #3 in City.
DEMITRI HERNANDEZ (Sr-Mendez) rounds the penultimate turn in the varsity 1,600m on his was to a 4:45.86 14th place finish.
NATHAN SANTA CRUZ (Sr-Venice) had the top 400m time at Irvine ASICS, wining the final heat in 49:09; #1 in City and #18 in State.
The Mammen sisters, Lulu and Louisa, are running for D3 Southern Section Corona del Mar this season due to the Palisades fires. Eleanor ran a 5:52.80 in the F/S 1,600m and Lulu ran 5:34.62 in the varsity race.
Culver City Invitational
Culver City High School - March 1st, 2025
Palisades junior ANDREW RAZZO leads the pack into the 4th lap of the 1,600M. Andrew won the race in 4:35,89; #5 in the City rankings.
ISABELLA SAKALOWSY and KENNEDY BRANNON lineup for the 3,200m at Culver City. Both ran PR’s with Kennedy winning the race in 12:34.70 and Isabella coming in 2nd in 12:38.22.
ETHAN BAROK starts the final 400m leg of the Sprint Medley Relay on the way to posting a Taft school record of 1:42.78.
Palisades top freshman THEO MAYEDA placed 5th in the 1,600m in a PR of 4:43.28, #7 overall in LA City.
ANTRELL HARRIS leads off Birmingham in the 800m Sprint Medley Relay.
GABRIELLA GILYARD (Soph-Palisades) was the top City finisher in the 1,600m. She finished 4th overall in 5:38.68, currently #10 in City rankings.
TIFFANY ZHERDEV, MIKAELA TULLIUS, LEAH DANIELS and HUDSON SONG were part of the Taft 4000m Distance Relay Medley at Culver City that placed 3rd in 14:16.09.
KEIRA OWEN brings it on home in the varsity DMR at Culver City. The Hamilton team that also included GEMMA ALFARA, ISIS GONZALES and SAMANTHA UGOLNIK set a PR of 18:01.67.
Birmingham Freshman JUSTIN MAZARIEGO competes in the varsty 1,600m at the Culver City Invite, He finished 18th overall in 5:27.05.
Crescenta Valley Distance Invitational
La Canada High School February 22nd, 2025
BLAKE SIGWORTH takes the win in Heat 1 of the 3,200m in 9:28.06 to post the #2 time in California.
CHARLES SIMON competes in heat 1 of the 1,600m. Charles doubled in the 3,200m (9:44.84) and 1,600m (4:44.88).
ANGELINA LOPEZ posted a PR of 11:44.92 to place 5th in heat 1 of the 3,200m. Her time is #2 in LA City.
OLIVER BARR just missed breaking 2-minutes in the 800m posting 2:00.42, ranking him 4th in LA City. This image is from the heat 1 of the 1,600m, his 2nd race, where he placed 16th in 4:54.50.
OLIVIA CORRIGAN ran the 12th fastest 3,200m on Saturday to record the 2nd best all-time Eagle Rock time of 12:06.65. This picture is from her 2nd race in heat 2 of the 1,600m where she placed 5th in 5:46.23 (#5 LA City).
JORGE MONTENEGRO leads heat 1 of the 3,200m at the CV Distance Invite. Jorge placed 8th in the race and his time of 9:59.42 ranks 3rd in LA City.
Eagle Rock freshman FIONA WALTS placed 3rd in heat 2 of the 800m with the top City time of 2:41.05, the 11th fastest on the day.
ELLA SENELICK leads on lap 2 in heat 6 of the 1,600m. Ella finished the race in 2nd place in 6:17.07.
SUSANA MIER takes 1st place in heat 6 of the 1,600m with a time of 6:13.97
Eagle Rock’s 4 x 100 Relay Team Places 2nd
PICTURE OF THE WEEK
BENJAMIN HARO finishes the final leg of the 4 x 400m to help San Fernando to a 4th place finish.
‘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’.
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