Brian Spangenberg

Most cross-country runners don't play football, for obvious reasons. That alone would make Brian Spangenberg special. But the College of the Canyons freshman played his last high school football game 18 years ago. That, his cross-country teammates would agree, makes the 35-year-old Spangenberg extra special.

Glendale College won the first two Western State Conference men's cross-country meets of the season by 42 and 26 points, but the Vaqueros' victory in the WSC final at Arroyo Verde Park on Tuesday might have been the most impressive of the three. The Vaqueros had seven of the top 15 finishers. Glendale had five of the top 10 finishers in the first WSC meet at College of the Canyons on Sept. 17 and six of the top 12 in the second at Moorpark.

Glendale College won the first two Western State Conference men's cross-country meets of the season by 42 and 26 points, but the Vaqueros' victory in the WSC final at Arroyo Verde Park on Tuesday might have been the most impressive of the three. The Vaqueros had seven of the top 15 finishers. Glendale had five of the top 10 finishers in the first WSC meet at College of the Canyons on Sept. 17 and six of the top 12 in the second at Moorpark.

Most cross-country runners don't play football, for obvious reasons. That alone would make Brian Spangenberg special. But the College of the Canyons freshman played his last high school football game 18 years ago. That, his cross-country teammates would agree, makes the 35-year-old Spangenberg extra special.

The old man of junior college track, Brian Spangenberg, is not slowing down. Spangenberg, 36, set a College of the Canyons record of 31:48.4 in winning the 10,000 meters at the Santa Barbara Relays on Saturday. He improved on the record 32:01 he ran last year. Spangenberg enrolled at Canyons in 1999 after discovering the school had a business- and computer-related curriculum that would help him in his job with a medical supply company in Northridge. The Cougars also set a school record of 41.

Glendale College fell short in its bid to win a second consecutive men's title in the junior college cross-country state championships at Fairbanks Park in San Luis Obispo on Saturday. The Vaqueros had 109 points to finish third behind Orange Coast (100) and Mt. San Antonio (108). San Diego Mesa, which won the Southern California championships on Nov. 5, was fourth with 111 points. "I'm a little disappointed," Glendale Coach Eddie Lopez said.

During its 13-year history, the American Heart Assn.'s annual Heart Run and Walk has never experienced rain. Thanks to good timing Sunday, the event again took place in favorable weather through the streets of Woodland Hills before overcast skies and rain moved into the Valley.

Glendale College is a 220-mile drive from San Luis Obispo, but the Vaqueros will feel right at home when the state junior college men's cross-country championships are held at Fairbanks Park on Saturday. That's because Glendale won the Western State Conference title at Fairbanks last year and was victorious on the same course in the Cuesta Invitational on Oct. 15. "We think it's like a home course to us," Glendale Coach Eddie Lopez said. "We've run there enough that we know it really well."

The Glendale College men's cross-country team extended its string of top-three finishes in the state junior college championships at Woodward Park on Saturday, but the Vaqueros fell short of their goal. Glendale was trying to win its third men's championship in six years, but the Vaqueros finished third for the second consecutive year. San Diego Mesa won with 58 points to cap an undefeated season and claim its first state title since 1964. Mt.

Glendale College came within a point of making a clean sweep of the men's and women's races in the first Western State Conference cross-country meet of the season at College of the Canyons on Friday. Glendale, led by individual winner Eduardo Diaz, defeated runner-up Bakersfield, 27-69, in the men's meet while the Vaquero women, paced by first place Kim Lorimer, tied Bakersfield, 68-68. Most ties in cross-country are broken by determining which team has a higher-finishing No.

Kyle Matter of Hart High did something Friday night his famous predecessor could not, leading the Indians to a 26-7 victory over Loyola in a nonleague game at College of the Canyons. "It's a big win for us," Coach Mike Herrington of Hart said. "Any time you can beat Loyola . . . they have such a great tradition behind them." Matter & Co. delivered payback for two consecutive losses to Loyola, a perennial Southern Section Division I power.

More than 17 years after graduating from high school, Brian Spangenberg of College of the Canyons won his first junior college cross-country race in the second Western State Conference meet of the season at Moorpark College on Friday. Spangenberg, a 35-year-old freshman who took up running four years ago because friends were training for the L.A. Marathon, finished seventh, second, third and third in Canyons' first four races this season.