Playoff Profiles : Ali Could Be the Greatest

Ali Benmohamed doesn’t yet have the credentials of Richard Nance or Cesario Marquez, but he’s the most promising distance runner to emerge from Monroe High in the last decade and a half.

Nance, who ran the mile in 4 minutes 12.2 seconds, won the mile for Monroe in the 1974 City Section championships.

Marquez, who ran 9:01.4 in the 3,200 meters, won the 3,200 meters in the 1980 City meet and the 1,600 and 3,200 in the 1981 finals.

Benmohamed’s bests of 4:20.57 in the 1,600 and 9:55.3 in the 3,200 are not on the same level as those of Nance and Marquez. But the Viking junior is capable of improving greatly, according to Monroe Coach Dean Balzarett, who coached Nance and Marquez.

“He ran 1:58 in the 800 and that shocked me a little bit,” Balzarett said. “So that’s an avenue we need to explore in the future. I didn’t think he could run 1:58 that easily, but he did it so effortlessly that I’d like to see what he could do in that event next year.”

Benmohamed will run in the 1,600 and 3,200 in the City preliminaries at Birmingham High on Thursday. He won both races in the Northwest Valley Conference finals last week and is regarded as a contender for the City title in the 1,600.

Not bad for someone who began running competitively only two years ago.

Born in Paris to Algerian parents, Benmohamed moved to North Hills with his family when he was 7. He played soccer until a friend encouraged him to come out for the Monroe track team as a freshman.

He won City titles in the frosh-soph 1,600 and 3,200 last year and idolizes Noureddine Morceli of Algeria, the world record holder in the mile and in the 1,500, 2,000 and 3,000 meters.

“I watch him on TV and get newspapers about him from Algeria,” Benmohamed said.

“I know some people who know all about him and they encourage me to try to run the kind of times he ran when he was younger.”