Small Cast Carries Torch for Glendale

Tom McMurray would like this year to be a repeat of 1985 for his Glendale College men’s track team. That’s what he’d like, but it’s not what he’s expecting.

In 1985, only six Vaqueros qualified for state competition, but the small contingent scored enough points to finish third. McMurray will face the same circumstances today when he travels to Bakersfield College along with six of his athletes for the state junior college track and field championships.

Glendale, which this year won the Western State Conference title for the 14th consecutive season, qualified four men and two women for the meet during last week’s Southern California Regional Championships.

“We’ve done this before,” he said, “but in ‘85, all our athletes competed in two events. This year, all our people are one-event athletes, so I don’t think we really have enough people to make much of an impact.

“But we should still do a good job, individually.”

Leading the way for the Vaqueros will be sophomore Rodney Bradshaw, a graduate of Saugus High, who qualified with a second-place time of 14.35 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles at last week’s regionals.

While at Saugus, Bradshaw was the 1986 high school state champion in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles.

Glendale’s Jose A. Hernandez, who was third in 10,000-meter race at the regionals, also will compete in Bakersfield. His regional time of 30:35 is the third-best mark among junior college athletes this year and equaled a personal best for Hernandez.

Also part of the Glendale contingent is freshman Dave Bunevacz, from Paraclete High. He was fourth in the regionals in the javelin (188-7), and earlier threw 201-10, the third-best mark in the state this year.

Brian Robinson, a graduate of Alemany High, will compete in the high jump. He qualified with a leap of 6 feet, 8 inches in the regional.

State qualifiers for the Glendale women’s team are shotputter Linda Benioff and discus thrower Karen Myers, a product of Canyon High.

Two Moorpark College athletes, distance runner Debbie Ball and shotputter Ken Lowther, are entered in the state meet.

Ball, a transfer from CSUN, will run the 3,000. She holds the Moorpark school record of 10:19.05 in the event.

Lowther finished fourth in the shotput last week with a mark of 52-4.

Staff writer Ralph Nichols contributed to this story.