Division-by-Division Breakdown of Saturday's LA City Section Championships



Boys Division 1

Ben Hamer, a senior at Palisades Charter, put up the fastest time of the day in prelims over the hilly three-mile Pierce College course. Hamer, eighth at the section final last year and the No. 4 returner, blazed the dry and dusty course in 15:46.60 and was one of three boys to cover the terrain in sub-16. 

Marvin Guardado, a junior from Birmingham Community Charter (15:57.91), and Matthew Rios, a senior from Granada Hills Charter (15:58.80), also dripped under 16 minutes. 

Justin Hazell (pictured), a senor from El Camino Real and the defending champion, said he was running with an illness at the prelims where he cruised unchallenged in his heat, finishing in 16:10.93. Hazell, whose winning time at the finals a year ago was 14:57.87, still had the fifth fastest time on the course all day. 

Hazell, who was fourth at the State meet last year, went 13:59.30 to win at Woodbridge over three miles and posted 15:01.90 over 5K to win at Clovis. 

Bruno Amon-Franceschi, a junior from Marshall, had the day's No. 4 time (16:04.94). Amon-Franceschi was seventh at the section final last year as a sophomore.

Brent Smith of Palisades, who was fifth last year as a sophomore, was 15th in the prelims (16:42.04).

With the depth of Hamer, Smith and a strong core of emerging young stars Palisades, third in the team race last year, could be poised to challenge for a podium spot or even a top-two finish needed to qualify for State.

Coming out of league, the City Section rankings went like this: 1. Granada Hills, 2. El Camino Real, 3. Garfield, 4. Marshall, 5. Palisades, 6. Birmingham and 7. Monroe.

Rios, Sean Larbaoui, Hayden Daly and Jacob Lee went 3-6-8-13 in the merged prelim heat results for Granada Hills, supporting that ranking order.


Merged Boys Division 1 heat results

Three Mile Run

For the full list of merged preliminary heat results, click here.