Notebook / Sam Farmer : String of Conference Track Titles Ends for Glendale

Although its string of 14 consecutive league titles came to an end, the Glendale College men’s track and field team made a strong showing in the Western State Conference championships Friday at Bakersfield.

The Vaqueros, who were 9-0 in WSC meets, placed third in the conference finals and fell victim to a rule implemented this season in which the conference champion is determined solely on the outcome of the WSC finals. In years past, a team’s regular-season performance in dual meets was taken into account. Glendale would have shared first with Bakersfield and Moorpark in that format.

Nonetheless, 10 men and seven women from Glendale qualified for the Southern California preliminaries at Cerritos College on Saturday. The finals will be held May 13.

Marty Beck, who was named the top men’s athlete in the meet, qualified in four events. Beck won the 400-meter hurdles in a personal-record 53.46 seconds and the long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 9 inches, also a personal record.

Steve Barnett set a school and meet record in the javelin with a throw of 207-6.

Other qualifiers included John Szekely, who placed second in shotput at 49-0, and Steve Graham, fourth in the 1,500 in 4:03.59, a personal record. John Kearney posted a career best with a 4:03.61 finish in the 1,500 and Fernando Diaz notched a personal record with a fifth-place finish (15:30.62) in the 5,000.

For the women, Marji Gilles qualified for the Southern California meet in six events: triple jump (37-7 1/4), javelin (111-2), high jump (5-2), long jump (16-11 3/4), shotput (33-1) and as a member of the 4 x 100 relay (53.24). The relay team, which finished fourth, included Daniella Gogh, Bianca Howard, Gilles and Margarita Red-Horse.

Karen Myers qualified in the javelin with at 129-3, the discus (122-0), the shotput (34-11) and the triple jump (33-1 3/4).

Linda Benioff qualified in the shotput (39-4) and discus (114-7), Howard finished second in the high jump (5-4) and Gogh placed fourth in the 100 hurdles (17.09).

Two days earlier, at Bakersfield, three Glendale runners qualified in the men’s 10,000 meters. Graham finished second in 32:23, Kearney placed third in 32:58 and Diaz finished fifth (33:16). In the hammer throw, Jeff Levy finished second with with an effort of 122-2.

He’s waiting for the movie: Glendale High shortstop Swain Wukelich found that when he starts checking his statistics, he inevitably falls into a slump. He prefers the one-day-at-a-time approach in which each at-bat is a fresh start.

So when teammates bust out the stat book, Wukelich usually scoots.

He did, however, take a peek recently. And, well, ouch.

“He checked out his average and almost dropped on the floor,” Coach Chris Axelgard said. “He’s hitting about .105. He’s batting less than he weighs.”

Wukelich batted .330 last season.