NOTEBOOK : Sports Festival Set for Area Seniors

The 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, are still two years away, but the Olympic spirit will come alive in Glendale in a few weeks.

Glendale-area athletes 50 years and older are invited to participate in the Senior Sports Festival, June 2-10.

The first-year festival features competition in golf, tennis, swimming, walking, softball, horse shoes, shuffleboard and lawn bowling.

Medals will be awarded to the first three finishers in each event and all participants will receive a commemorative gift.

Sign-ups are being held through May 15.

Information: (818) 243-7273.

Leaps and bounds: Ben White finished second in the men’s long jump with an Occidental school-record leap of 25 feet, 2 1/2 inches in last weekend’s Northridge Invitational track meet.

Greg Garcia qualified for the Division III nationals in the javelin with a throw of 197 feet.

Pam Childs won the women’s long jump with a leap of 19-0 3/4 and the women’s 400- and 1,600-meter relay won their events in 49.41 seconds and 3 minutes, 53.83 seconds.

Triple-double: Marji Gilles of Glendale College will compete in three events Saturday at the Southern California junior college track and field finals at Cerritos College.

Last Saturday at the prelims, Gilles--who has qualified for the state meet in the heptathlon with 4,008 points--advanced in the triple jump (37-0 1/2), javelin (122-10) and long jump (16-10).

“I think she has a good chance to make it (to the state meet) in at least two of those,” Glendale Coach Jon Gold said of the sophomore from Burbank High.

Rick Provenzano, Derrick Mitchell, Phil Simpson and Marty Beck of Glendale advanced to the finals in two events each.

Provenzano and Mitchell qualified in the 800 at 1:54.66 and 1:54.73, respectively, while Beck (53.52) and Simpson (54.42) will compete in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. The quartet also combined to post the second-fastest time in the 1,600-meter relay (3:14.91).

Other Glendale qualifiers include Dave Swanson in the high jump (6-8); Nicole Jimenez in the 1,500 (4:59.53); Missy Helms in the triple jump (33-11 1/2); Ingrid Holmes in the shot put (36-3); and Rosa Dominguez in the javelin (106-5).

The top four finishers in the running events--with the exception of the 1,500, where six qualify--and the top six in the field events will advance to the state meet, May 18-19, at Santa Barbara City College.

Highly qualified: Hoover High dominated the distance events and more than 20 Glendale-area athletes qualified for the Southern Section prelims last Friday at the Pacific League track finals at Arcadia High. Hoover swept the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races behind Creighton Harris and Eliazar Herrera. Harris won the 1,600 in four minutes, 22.09 seconds. Herrera won the 3,200 in 9:30:31.

Other area winners included Crescenta Valley high jumper Hank Lee (6 feet, 4 inches) and Hoover pole vaulter Gunnar Miller (13 feet).

Erin Tardini of La Canada qualified for the Southern Section prelims by winning the 110 and 330 hurdles at the Rio Hondo League meet. Tardini won the shorter event in 15.22 and the longer one in 47.92.

Net gains: The Glendale College women’s doubles team of Claudia Baumann and Tracy Fabian, and the men’s team of Mike Koons and Mike Smith, will compete in the Southern California tennis regionals this weekend.

Baumann and Fabian advanced to the regionals at Long Beach City College by reaching the quarterfinals of the Western State Conference tournament last weekend.

Koons and Smith also advanced to the regionals match at Desert College by reaching the quarterfinals of the WSC tournament, where they lost.