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GLENDALE — With the air quality seemingly no longer a problem and Southern California blazes quelled, area cross-country runners are looking to set forth upon the CIF Southern Section finals with no distractions but their opponents on Saturday morning. “It’s a big day,” said Flintridge Prep boys’ Coach Ingrid Herskind, who leads her Rebels into the Division V race as one of six local squads hoping to climb into the CIF hierarchy and, at the same time, advance to next week’s CIF-State Meet in Fresno.

GLENDALE — The rugged three-mile course at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut is the postseason proving ground for high school cross-country teams. As the site of today’s 2009 CIF Southern Section Cross Country Championships, it serves as both a battleground for CIF divisional titles and a springboard to the CIF state meet for those teams and individuals that perform well enough. Flintridge Prep’s boys’ and girls’ teams, as well as Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, will be looking to contend in their respective divisions and move their squads on to the Nov. 28 state meet at Woodward Park in Fresno with at least a top-seven finish.

GLENDALE — The following are CIF playoff previews pertaining to area high school teams .   BOYS’ WATER POLO Hoover vs. Webb at Pomona-Pitzer College, 10:30 a.m.: The Tornadoes (19-13) and driver/utility player Hakop Kaplanyan continue to score plenty of goals. Hoover, which finished third in the Pacific League, will now look to take its defensive abilities to the next level in a Division VI quarterfinal match against top-seeded Webb (27-3)

WALNUT — Three of the six area cross-country teams competing in Saturday's CIF Southern Section final accomplished their goal of advancing to Saturday's State Championships in Fresno, while other locals from the remaining teams just missed the cut for individual qualification. Leading the charge were the 2006 Prep League champion Flintridge Prep boys' and girls' teams, which placed second and third in their respective Division V races to advance to state. Flintridge Prep's boys' team finished second with 64 points after posting a team time of 1 hour 24 minutes 9 seconds, to Woodcrest Christian's 1:22:37 mark, which earned it 58 points.

WALNUT - Among the locals who competed at Saturday's 54th annual Mt. San Antonio College Relays from Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, Crescenta Valley High and Glendale, the Nitros' Michael Davis may have stood tallest. The multi-sport star competed in three competitions, highlighted by his entry in the invitational 100- and 200-meter dashes, as well as his role in the only local win of the night. The lone local victory came in the second-to-last race of the evening, courtesy of the Glendale boys' 1600-meter relay team.

GLENDALE — Zack Torres was all smiles as he exited the three-mile course at Mount San Antonio College on Saturday morning. It came with good reason, as the Crescenta Valley junior ran to a remarkable fourth-place finish, propelling his team to fourth overall in the premier race of the 2007 Mt. SAC Cross-Country Invitational in Walnut. It also capped off a productive day for the Falcons girls, who had two top-15 finishers in Claire Collison and Rachel Lange in their own race.

WALNUT — For about two minutes of Wednesday night's CIF Southern Section Division V semifinal match, it looked like the Crescenta Valley High boys' water polo team might just be up for a comeback as improbable as the nearly 20 minutes of offensive futility that preceded it. Robbie Ruzicka and Alan Dearman's consecutive goals within a one-minute span near the end of the third period cut the Falcons' deficit in half and gave them a chance to...

I live on a cul-de-sac in Glendale, below Colorado. Every week the street sweeper backs into the cul-de-sac and cleans whichever side of the street is closed to curbside parking on that day. I have noticed with amazement that if the cul-de-sac is not clean after the street sweeper passes over it once, the worker looks out his window, backs up the sweeping machine, and does it again. He keeps doing this until the street is clean. If this man is representative of the kind of government employee we have in Glendale, a person who cares about his job, we as citizens of Glendale are really lucky.

An unidentified woman who approached a group of children playing Sunday in the front yard of a house near Verdugo Park and started soliciting information before being run off was likely part of a gypsy scam, police say. At about 4:30 p.m., four people, including two teenage girls and two adults, got out of a minivan and positioned themselves along his cul-de-sac in the Royal Canyon neighborhood, said resident Greg Andrews. The driver, a woman in her mid-50s, then parked opposite traffic in front of his house.

Today 10 a.m. Crescenta Valley and Flintridge Sacred Heart swimming goes to Mt. SAC’s Mills Aquatic Center for CIF Preliminaries. 7 p.m. Crescenta Valley boys’ volleyball hosts Agoura in first round of CIF-SS Div. II playoffs. 7 p.m. Crescenta Valley baseball hosts Arcadia. 7 p.m. Flintridge Prep boys’ volleyball hosts CAMS in first round of CIF-SS Div. V playoffs.   Saturday 4 p.m. Crescenta Valley and Flintridge Sacred Heart swimming go to Mt. SAC’s Mills Aquatic Center for CIF Finals.