Buck Stops Here; He Fails to Qualify : Track: Dana Hills sophomore, center of controversy after disqualification, doesn’t earn spot in final during re-running of hurdles.

After five days of controversy, Jeremy Buck’s quest for a spot in tonight’s Southern Section track and field championships came to an uneventful finish Thursday when he failed to qualify in the re-running of the boys’ 4-A 300-meter intermediate hurdles preliminary at Gahr High School.

Buck, a Dana Hills High School sophomore who was disqualified for running around a hurdle in the original preliminary race Saturday, was granted a reprieve Monday by Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas. After viewing a videotape of the race, Thomas ruled that Buck had been misled by an improperly placed hurdle and that the race would have to be run again.

The National Federation of State High Schools approved the re-running, but ruled Wednesday that not one but all four heats would have to be re-run.

All but three of the 33 original preliminary entrants showed up Thursday for the re-run, knowing that they would have to either win their heat or be among the next five fastest overall to advance to tonight’s 7:50 final at Cerritos College.

Only one of the original qualifiers--Vince Grant of Muir, the second-fastest intermediate hurdler in the state--failed to qualify Thursday. Ian Humphrey of Cajon (seventh-fastest at 39.03) gained a berth he had not originally earned.

Buck said he was running in a pair of borrowed spikes that were 2 1/2 sizes too small. One of his spikes, he said, was stolen from the Dana Hills locker room.

He got a good start but hit the first two hurdles. As he came off the final turn, Buck was in good position to win the heat but then, after scrambling his steps before the final hurdle, he was nipped at the finish by Bill Ephram of Fontana.

Ephram’s time of 39.39 seconds was the slowest of all nine qualifiers. Buck’s time (39.62) was the 14th-fastest overall.

Buck, who said he received “a lot of dirty looks,” from several of the hurdlers while warming up, did not seem to be tremendously disappointed once he heard his time and learned his chances of qualifying were slim.

“I didn’t have that good of a race,” said Buck, the South Coast League champion. “I’m just happy I did good in league.”

John Klink, the Dana Hills hurdles coach and athletic director who filed the protest on Buck’s behalf, was not quite as nonchalant: “He looked down at the last hurdle. He’s supposed to look up at the finish line. . . . Oh well, no one feels worse than him.”

But Grant was certainly feeling pretty miserable. As a senior with a personal best time of 37.9, Grant ran a disappointing 39.25--10th overall--making him the alternate for tonight’s race.

“I feel awful. I feel real bad,” said Grant, who will compete tonight as part of Muir’s top-seeded 1,600-meter relay team. “Words can’t say how bad I feel. We (the Muir boys’ team) were picked to win CIF. I was an important factor. Now it’s going to be close. . . . Now I just feel like it’s all gone. I can’t believe I didn’t qualify.”

Other qualifiers, and their times, were: Cajon’s Charles Johnson (38.00), Keadrick Washington of Rowland (38.29), Jabari Reynolds of Nogales (38.38), Demond Smith of Hawthorne (38.57), David Fair of El Toro (38.81), Derek Ferrell of Muir (38.81) and Avery Anderson of Riverside North (39.20).