Oh Brother, Muniz Passes Another Hurdle : Track: Woodbridge runner breaks family’s 300-meter mark, sets sights on today’s Southern Section 3-A finals.

Back in the days when he was an awkward freshman trying to make tracks of his own, Greg Muniz of Woodbridge dreamed of little more than running the hurdles faster than his older brother, Louie.

At the time, he didn’t know better, so he kept his goals simple and close to home. He simply wanted to be the fastest Muniz in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles.

In the years since, Muniz has grown up and become his own man on the track. As he did, his marks dropped until at last his brother’s family record fell by the wayside. In the end, the occasion passed without much fanfare. By then there were other, more important marks to focus on, and eventually eclipse.

When Muniz settled into the starting blocks at the Southern Section 3-A preliminaries last week at Trabuco Hills High, one journey ended and another began. Twice, he rocketed away from the starting line, leaving the others in his heat far behind in qualifying for today’s 3-A finals at Cerritos College in the 110-meter high hurdles and the 300 intermediate hurdles.

His times weren’t the fastest of the day, but there was something about the way he ran those races. Muniz was strong, confident, technically superior, and fast enough to advance.

Almost four years since he first wanted to beat his brother, Muniz finds himself on the verge of defeating all comers. And if he doesn’t do it today, four years of racing and training have taught him that losing happens sometimes, and how you deal with it is at least as important as the running itself.

“Going in, I want to win,” Muniz said. “But I’d have to say if I didn’t win and I ran a good time, I’d be happy with that. I’ve learned to accept losing. You’re going to lose sometimes. For some guys that’s hard to accept, but you’re not always going to have good days.”

If that sounds as if Muniz is hedging his bets, forget it.

“I think the bad days are behind me,” he said. “I feel like I’m peaking the last month of the season.”

Peaking at the right time has always been part of Woodbridge Coach George Varvas’ training plan. When Muniz was a freshman, his best race was at league finals. When he was a sophomore, it was the same story. Last year, his seasonal-best of 38.52 seconds came at the Masters meet.

Last week, he advanced to the 3-A finals with times of 14.88 for the 110 hurdles and 38.40 for the 300 hurdles. What’s more, he showed his range by helping the Warriors qualify in the 400- and 1,600-meter relays.

That versatility is one of the things that makes Muniz one of the finest runners Varvas has coached at Woodbridge.

“He has excellent range, very competitive from the 100 all the way up to the 1,600,” Varvas said. “He’s with a pretty select group. There’s only one other like him--Eric Schermerhorn.”

Like Schermerhorn, an 800-meter runner who graduated in 1984, Muniz uses longer races for building the strength needed in the final meters of the 300 intermediates. And like Schermerhorn, he uses the shorter sprint races to add speed to the mix.

“From the very beginning we knew what Greg’s best event would be--the 300 intermediates,” Varvas said. “For Greg, because he doesn’t have as much pure speed, we needed more endurance, more strength.”

As a result, he just might have the longest resume of anyone in today’s meet.

Muniz has never run a 100 in competition, but his best 200 is a credible 22.50. When he ran 48.69 to win the 400 at the Orange County championships, he stunned even himself by lowering his personal-best by two seconds. He has also run 2:01 for 800, which in a down year in the event in the county, was fast enough to win any number of league championships.

His best for the high hurdles is last week’s 14.88, a sure sign to him that he is peaking at the right time. And his PR for the intermediates is 38.22, a time he hopes to crush today.

“Going into the year, I wanted to run 37.5,” he said. “Last year, I didn’t expect to run that fast (a sub-39 clocking at 3-A finals). I really surprised myself there.

“A 37.5 is my goal. It’ll take the perfect race to get 37.5. The atmosphere is there. It’s just up to me.”

No matter how fast Muniz runs today, or at the Masters meet next week, or at the State meet in two weeks, his family records appear safe for quite a while.

Although, there is another Muniz brother on the Woodbridge track team, Tony, a sophomore, appears content to leave the hurdles to Greg and Louie. Tony is determined to make his mark in the triple jump.

Meet Notes

Field events begin at 11 a.m., running events at 1 p.m at Cerritos College. . . . The top nine finishers, regardless of division, advance to the Masters meet next Friday night at Cerritos College.

The Orange Lutheran girls’ team, last season’s 1-A champions, qualified five individuals and two relay teams for today’s meet. Barbara Boisvert, who has bests of 2:14.4 in the 800 and 5:00.2 in the 1,600, is the Lancers’ top qualifier. . . . The Valencia boys’ team, trying to give retiring Coach Mike Cummins his first section title in 30 years, suffered a key blow in the 2-A preliminaries last week when long jumper Ace Riggins failed to advance. Sprinters Kevin and Korey Alexander will lead the Tigers.