Runner

LA CRESCENTA — Early offense put the Jewel City Bears Junior Baseball team in the driver's seat, but consistently effective pitching and defense drove it home to the Tri-Cities District 16 Tournament of Champions title with a 7-2 win over Crescenta Valley Kelly & Small Accounting on Wednesday night at Dunsmore Park. Jewel City starting pitcher Eric Winner went 5 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts to earn the win, as the Bears played nearly error-free defense behind him throughout the night.

GLENDALE — Karen Rosas wasn't planning to deviate from her strategy moments before taking part in the 10,000-meter race at the California Community College Athletic Assn. Track and Field Championships on Friday night. The Glendale Community College women's distance runner said she was comfortable with her plan of staying in the lead pack throughout the 25-lap race before building separation over the final eight laps. Rosas' move worked, as she clocked 37 minutes 19.69 seconds to capture her first state championship at American River College in Sacramento.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Neil Jones insisted he isn't nervous. If he were, nobody could blame him. The Glendale Community College men's track and field standout will make his first appearance at the California Community College Athletic Assn. Track and Field Championships. For some, nerves might get the best of them competing in a top-flight meet. Not so for the affable Jones. "To be able to go after a state title or two is just so amazing," said Jones, who will compete in the 800-meter and 1,500 races in the two-day meet, which will be held Friday and Saturday at American River College in Sacramento.

There's a pantheon of top-caliber distance runners in the history of the Glendale Community College women's track and field program. Many of them share the common fortune of having won a state title. Kim Lorimer, Tove Berg and Rosa Del Toro have the hardware to prove it, all having won state titles in the past decade and, in the process, setting the bar even higher for future Vaqueros. In the case of Karen Rosas, she would like to have herself mentioned with past standouts.

GLENDALE — Karen Rosas absorbed all of the advice given to her and then proceeded to enjoy one of the biggest outings of her collegiate career. It came during a time when the Glendale Community College women's track and field athlete wanted to prove herself. The recommendations served Rosas well. Rosas won a pair of events Friday afternoon at the Western State Conference Finals at Bakersfield College. Despite battling windy conditions throughout most of her races, the sophomore prevailed in the 10,000-meter race in 38 minutes 55.79 seconds and the 5,000 in 18:21.98.

Glendale Unified school board candidate Ingrid Gunnell finished second in a recent bid for a position with the Los Angeles Unified School District teachers union. Gunnell garnered 48% of the vote in her run for elementary vice president of the United Teachers Los Angeles, losing to Juan Ramirez, who got 51% of the vote. The results were announced Tuesday. The product of Glendale schools and the parent of an Edison Elementary School student, Gunnell is one of eight candidates competing for two seats on the local school board.

GLENDALE — From sprints to relays and jumps to vaults, the five local boys' track and field teams appear to have their bases covered. With the first starter's pistol set to go off Thursday, the athletes are ready to step to the starting line and hunt down a league championship and qualify for the CIF division finals. To get there, they must first get through an assortment of nonleague and league meets and invitationals. Each team will soon find out where they stand.

GLENDALE — Nathan Sellers (Crescenta Valley Erik Kleinsasser (Crescenta Valley, 200?) Occidental College junior cross-country runner: Kleinsasser's decorated career got a bit more decorated as he became an All-West Region selection after taking fifth on Saturday in Oregon at the Division III West Regionals 8,000-meters race. Rachel Lange (Crescenta Valley, 200?) Brigham Young University junior cross-country runner: One of Crescenta Valley's most heralded runners, Lange concluded her season along with the Cougars on Saturday at the Mountain Region Championships.

LA CRESCENTA — For Paulina Antaplyan and the surging Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy cross-country team, at first look, not much changed from the first Mission League meet of the season to Thursday afternoon's second league get-together at Crescenta Valley Park. After all, reigning league and CIF-State Division IV champion Harvard-Westlake still took first and Sacred Heart still took second, just in front of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. But Sacred Heart tightened the gap between itself and Harvard-Westlake and also widened the margin between itself and Notre Dame in the process.

GLENDALE — The following are updates on area athletes at the collegiate level. Brian Trejo (Hoover High, 2009) San Francisco State cross-country sophomore : The former Tornadoes standout was named the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.'s Male Cross-County Runner of the Week for the period ending Sunday. Trejo was sixth overall in a 43-runner field at the season-opening Stanislaus Invitational on Saturday, finishing in 27 minutes 13 seconds in the 8K race. It was the fourth-straight race, dating back to last season, in which Trejo has been the Gators' top runner.