NOTEBOOK : Occidental Wins Conference Track Titles

The Occidental College men’s and women’s track teams continue to dominate the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Last weekend at the SCIAC championships, the Tiger women won their 11th consecutive title and the men won their ninth title in 11 years.

The Occidental women won 12 of 16 events while the men claimed nine of 17.

Glenda Mitchell was named the conference’s female athlete of the year after winning the 100- and the 400-meter hurdles, the 400 meters and anchoring the Tigers’ victorious 4 x 100 relay team.

Brady Dargan of Occidental was named the top male athlete after winning the hammer, shotput and discus.

The Tigers will compete in the Northridge invitational this week and then stage their own invitational May 12 before they travel to the NCAA Division III championships May 23-26 at North Central College at Naperville, Ill.

Clearing barriers: Marty Beck of Glendale College enters Saturday’s Southern California prelims at Cerritos College undefeated in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles this season.

At last week’s Western State Conference championships, Beck eclipsed his personal best of 52.35 seconds with a meet-record 51.84 clocking.

Beck also anchored Glendale’s 1,600-meter relay team, which finished third, with a 46.2 leg.

Last year, in his first season running the intermediate hurdles, Beck won the WSC championship and placed ninth in the state meet.

“I didn’t think I’d make it past the Southern California finals last year,” said Beck, who has orally committed to UCLA. “I never had any idea I’d make it to state. My form has improved so much over last year.

“I want to be state champion. I think I’ve put everything else on the back burner.”

In memoriam: Glendale’s James Moore dedicated his 10,000-meter race at the WSC championships to teammate Pablo Herrera, who died in an automobile accident three weeks ago.

“We used to do our homework together and we used to stay in the same rooms when we traveled,” Moore said. “He was probably my closest friend on the team. (The 10,000) was his race and he should have been here. I wanted to win it for him.”

Moore did, sweeping past Juan Romero of Bakersfield in the final 200 meters to win in 31:36.0, almost a minute faster than his previous best. Moore also placed second in the 5,000-meter run.

Teammate Dave Swanson won the WSC title in the high jump (6 feet, 10 inches) and Marji Gilles won the triple jump (37-4 1/2).

The Glendale team wore black bands on its uniforms at the WSC championships in memory of Herrera.

Pointed differences: Glendale was dominant in the middle-distance races at the WSC championships, picking up 41 of its 143 points in the 800 and 1,500 meters.

Rick Provenzano won the 1,500 (3:59.20) as Glendale placed four runners among the top seven. Nick Lugo (1:56.73) and Derrick Mitchell (1:56.93) placed first and second in the 800.

But Bakersfield outscored Glendale, 114 1/2 to 19, in the field events to win its second consecutive WSC title with 223 1/2 points.

Fight on: Pepe Reilly of Glendale will compete in the National Golden Gloves championships Saturday at Miami.

Reilly, 18, won a unanimous decision over Theodoro Garcia in the 119-pound bantamweight decision at the California Golden Gloves finals last weekend at Lincoln Park in Los Angeles.

Winners of the national championships will earn berths in the Goodwill Games box-offs, June 8-9 at Las Vegas.

Honor roll: Joshua Mann and John Padilla of Eagle Rock High, Hank Hou of Marshall and Jenny Nicholas of Flintridge Sacred Heart were among the players on the 1990 Scholar Squad selected by California Basketball magazine.

Forty-eight boys and 38 girls were selected for the teams, which honor athletic and academic achievement.

Stretch drive: The Occidental baseball team has a slim chance of winning the SCIAC title, but the Tigers must sweep Whittier and hope Caltech trips up conference-leading Claremont this weekend.

Occidental improved to 10-5 in SCIAC play last weekend with a three-game sweep of Caltech in which the Tigers outscored their opponents, 34-3. Occidental and La Verne are in second place behind Claremont (11-4).

Tournament time: Occidental College will sponsor a golf tournament May 11 at the San Dimas Country Club.

The tournament, co-sponsored by the Tiger Club and Raider running back Vance Mueller, a former Occidental football standout, will raise money for the Occidental athletic program.

The tournament, and a banquet, is open to 144 participants and will be played with a scramble format.

Information: (213) 259-2608.

Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.