THE COLLEGES : Glendale’s Swanson Makes Timely Jump From Court to Track

Less than a week after helping Glendale College advance to the finals of the Southern California junior college basketball regional, Dave Swanson was helping the school’s track team win a pivotal Western State Conference meet.

The 6-foot-5 Swanson cleared 6-8 to win the high jump last Friday as Glendale (10-1) squeaked out a 59-58-57 decision over Moorpark and Ventura. The sophomore transfer from Northridge has a personal best of 7 feet 0 1/2 inches.

While last week’s effort was well short of that, it was good enough for Swanson to qualify for the Southern California junior college prelims in May.

“He only had a day to practice,” Glendale Coach Tom McMurray said. “Give him a lot of credit. He did a great job with little preparation. He’s really talented.”

Tough break: Cal State Northridge will not play another California Collegiate Athletic Assn. baseball game until April 5, but the Matadors won’t be taking much of a spring break.

Including Wednesday’s game at UCLA, Northridge will play 11 nonconference games--eight against Division I teams--in the next three weeks.

But even though the Matadors have only 21 players, Coach Bill Kernen says he is actually welcoming the competition.

“The break is probably the best thing that we could have asked for. Our kids need the time to develop against strong opponents,” said Kernen, whose roster includes seven freshmen and 10 sophomores. “I think we will be a better team because of it. We’re 7-5 and still have a good shot at (the CCAA) title going into the second round.”

Winning by a whisker: Occidental College’s baseball team is on track to contend for its first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title since 1982 because the Tigers are winning close games.

“We’ve won four of five one-run games,” Coach Jeff Henderson said. “That’s something we haven’t done in the past.

“So far it’s been pretty much of a team effort. Everybody has been a hero at one time or another.”

One of the Tigers’ most consistent performers has been sophomore left-hander Dave Stoll, who is 3-1 and struck out a season-high 13 against Claremont in his only defeat.

Occidental (10-4-1, 4-2 in the SCIAC) will play two nonconference games in San Diego this weekend before resuming SCIAC play March 30 with a three-game series against La Verne.

Good timing: Cal State Northridge’s track and field teams are idle this weekend, and that’s good news for Coach Don Strametz, whose men’s and women’s squads have been slowed by injuries.

In last Saturday’s meet at UCLA, the Matadors were without the services of Erick McBride (800 meters) and Garrett Noel (javelin) in the men’s meet, while NCAA Division II All-Americans Laural Isles (100) and Lisa Gill (heptathlon) were missing from the women’s team.

McBride, the 1989 Southern Section 4-A Division 800 champion as a Palmdale High senior, was scheduled to run against UCLA but twisted his left ankle--for the second time this season--in a workout Wednesday.

Noel’s back injury might be the worst of the lot. It has prevented him from throwing in workouts and could force him to redshirt. Noel placed ninth in last year’s Division II championships.

Isles has a sore left ankle and Gill is recovering from an illness.

Logan’s run: Kevin Logan redshirted the 1988-89 season at San Jose State after he made the basketball team as a walk-on. During the past season, the former Westlake High standout won an honor that could be a sign of things to come.

The 6-7 Logan was selected to the Big West Conference’s All-Freshman team after averaging 7.6 points and 6.2 rebounds a game in addition to leading the Spartans in field-goal percentage (50.6%) and blocked shots (26).

“I felt I played pretty solid,” said Logan, the only San Jose State player to start all 28 games. “I rebounded and shot well. I need to work on my defense, strength and quickness, but that will come along with time and hard work.”

San Jose Coach Stan Morrison as high expectations.

“He’s going to be up there with the (San Jose State) record-holders in rebounds and scoring before he graduates,” Morrison said.

Gary Klein and staff writers Mike Hiserman, John Ortega and Steven Herbert contributed to this notebook.