Palisades High Girls Third at City Track Finals

arrived at Birmingham High School in Lake Balboa on Thursday afternoon with great expectations. She was entered in four events--the maximum allowable--and wanted to win all of them at the Los Angeles City Section Track & Field Championships.

The Palisades High sophomore at least hoped to defend her titles in the 300-meter hurdles and the high jump, in addition to winning the long jump and 100 hurdles.

If the Dolphins were going to defend their girls team title, Gustafson knew she had to hold up her end of the bargain, especially given that three key athletes from the previous year's championship graduated: Kendall's older sister (who ran the 800 at last year's finals meet), 100-meter hurdles section champion (now a heptathlete at Wake Forest) and high jumper , who was third in the City last spring. 

Gustafson did far more than anyone could have expected, medaling in all four of her events. She contributed 32 points all by herself--over half of the Dolphins' total. 

In the end, Carson simply had too much depth and talent, winning the girls title with 93 points. The real competition was for second place, where Palisades and Woodland Hills Taft stood tied at 55 points apiece heading into the 15th and final event--the 4x400-meter relay.

The Toreadors finished second in 3:58.82, earning eight points and clinching the runner-up spot. Palisades was fourth in the race in 4:00.09 and had to settle for third in the team standings with 59. The Dolphins had scored 75 points the year before--25 more than second-place Carson.

"We're not as deep this year as we were last year," Palisades Coach said. "The talent's there, it just hasn't developed yet. Next year and the year after, though, watch out!"

Gustafson began the meet at the long jump pit, where she was runner-up last year with a leap of 17-2 1/2. On Thursday, she improved her distance but not her place. Gustafson's best jump was 17-4 3/4, good for second place behind Kierra Miller of Carson, who began the second round with a leap of 17-6 3/4 that was never topped.

From there, Gustafson moved on to the high jump--which she won in a jump-off at 5-3 over Granada Hills' Xava Grooms last spring. This time, it was no contest. The Dolphins' 10th-grader cleared 5-6, four inches better than Grooms and three others, including sophomore teammate Doshawn Franks.

"That's the best I felt because I won it again and also jumped higher than last year," Gustafson said. "I was happy with that one."

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the stadium, and were racking up points in the pole vault. Greenberg, a junior, topped out at 10-6 to win City last year. This year she raised the bar higher, clearing 11 feet to repeat as champion and qualify for the state meet in Clovis. Greenberg achieved her personal-best of 11-3 at last year's state prelims. 

"I wanted to do better than I did last year, which I did," Greenberg said. Palisades has now won the event three years in a row. cleared 10 feet to take first place in 2009.

Carr, a sophomore, finished fourth for the second straight year, clearing 8-6. Her best height was 9-6 at the Frosh/Soph Relays on April 23 in Torrance, where she finished second to state leader Holly Tokar of Ventura.

"I knew I wasn't going to beat Jamie today, but I was really hoping for second place," Carr said.

The running events began with the 4x100 relay and Palisades' foursome of , , and finished sixth in 48.99. The last three (Williams, Brown and Greer) later ran in the 4x400 with freshman .

Instead of anchoring the 4x400, Gustafson switched to the 100-meter hurdles and picked up six points, finishing third in 15.16 behind top-qualifier Laurie Henigan of Taft (14.52) and Hillary Hill of Birmingham (14.59).

Freshman earned one point for finishing sixth in the 800 with a time of 2:23.64 and Greer scored two points for her team by placing fifth in the triple jump with a distance of 34-3 1/2.

Coach feared the lack of sprinters might hinder the Dolphins' chances of repeating, as they had no girls qualify in the 100 or 200. Stephens did qualify in the 400 but did not run it. "That means that you have to make up for those points by scoring well in the field and distance events."

One of the most anticipated races of the day was the 300 hurdles, where Gustafson was attempting to defend her title against top qualifer Henigan and Dayna Hurd of Carson, whom Gustafson held off in the final strides to win by 37 hundredths of a second last year.

Henigan opened a 10-meter lead down the straightaway but lost her stride and stumbled over the last hurdle, allowing Hurd, Gustafson and Crystal Lizaola of Jordan to pass her at the finish line. Hurd was first in 44.84 and Gustafson was second in 44.99--bettering her winning time of 45.16 last year. Greer also ran the race and finished sixth in 47.36.

"That was a tall order having to double back [in the 300] that quick after the 100 [hurdles]," Jones said of Gustafson's performance. "That's where having Erika in the 100 [hurdles] really helped last year because Kendall had time to recuperate between the 300 [hurdles] and the [4x400] relay. Still, to qualify for state in four events is a heck of an accomplishment."

Palisades was also hoping for a repeat performance from , who won the City cross country title in November and won the 3,200 as a freshman at City finals last spring in a time of 11:23.91. On Thursday, however, Bamberger fell off the pace in the final few laps and wound up in 14th in 12:08.78. Santee senior Charlene Quintanilla won in 11:18.31.

On the boys side, Palisades finished fifth in the team competition with a total of 28 points. The best performance was that of senior , who won the shot put on a throw of 51-3 3/4. Iheanacho placed fifth last year on a throw of 46 1/5 and won the City frosh/soph division as a sophomore in 2009.

"Kolmus knew that he was going to need to get over 50 feet to win," Coach said. "It was a big-time clutch effort."

Christopher James of West Adams was second at 51-1 1/2 and Dorsey's Jeremiah Allison took third at 51-1 1/4 after posting the best mark through three throws.

Iheanacho is Palisades' first champion in that event since since in 2001. Fajardo went on to become the Big West Conference discus champion at Cal State Northridge in 2004.

was hoping to repeat as section high jump champion, having won as a junior last year with a height of 6-2. His mechanics seemed slightly off Thursday, however, and he finished 10th at 5-10. He also competed in the long jump, pickin up two points with a fifth-place leap of 20-8.

Easily the Dolphins' strongest event was the 3,200, where they had three of the top five finishers, including junior , who was second in 9:30.17 after finishing fourth last year and just missing a state berth despite setting a new City sophomore record of 9:40.17.

"It's nice to qualify after coming so close last year," said Stromberg, though not quite able to catch Santee senior Omar Cortes, who ran the eight laps in 9:26.13. Palisades junior was fourth in 9:38.49 and right behind him was teammate (9:39.39), who battled the flu to break Stromberg's 10th-grade mark. 

In the bleachers to cheer on his alma mater and offer up words of wisdom was , who just finished his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin. Bustamante made the state meet in the 1,600 as a sophomore and qualified in cross country his junior year at Palisades.

"It's nice to be back here," Bustamante said. "It brings back a lot of memories." 

clocked 2:02.21 to finish 12th in the 800 and fellow senior finished seventh in the 100-meter dash in 11.29.

The Dolphins' 4x100 boys relay team of , , Logan and McDaniel opened the meet with a fifth-place finish in a time of 42.59.

Dorsey lapped the field in the boys competition, scoring 110 points to win its second straight team title. Host Birmingham was a distant second with 36.5 points while El Camino Real and Fairfax tied for third at 29 points, one more than Palisades.

"We had a lot of good results," Jones said. "It's really hard to repeat as the girls found out and the boys were one spot higher than last year. I expect us to do even better next year."

The CIF State Track & Field Championships are June 3-4 at Veterans Memorial Stadium on the campus of Buchanan High in Clovis.

Click here for complete results of the 2011 City Track & Field Championships.