Esperanza Bid for 3-A Title Derailed by Thousand Oaks : Boys: Aztecs lead until last event, the 1,600-meter relay, before falling, 59-55.

NORWALK —  Esperanza’s bid for a third consecutive Southern Section 3-A boys’ track and field championship got off to a slow start Friday afternoon at Cerritos College.

By early evening, things had picked up, but by the last event of the night, the 1,600-meter relay, Esperanza led Thousand Oaks by a single point. The faster finisher in the relay would win the championship.

For the first two legs, Esperanza held a 10-meter lead over Thousand Oaks, as the teams battled in the middle of the pack.

Bryan Krill, Thousand Oaks’ anchor runner, inherited a five-meter lead, but Roshawn Sims of Esperanza wiped it out in less than 50 meters.

But Sims, who had already won the 400 and placed second in the 200, couldn’t hold the lead down the stretch.

Thousand Oaks finished third in 3 minutes 22.56 seconds with Esperanza fifth in 3:23.45. The final team score was Thousand Oaks 59, Esperanza 55.

For Esperanza, the tone was set early.

Mark Parlin, the section’s leading discus thrower, was unexpectedly beaten by Brian Righetti of Ventura.

“Oh, awful,” Parlin said of his 171-foot 7-inch throw.

Righetti’s winning mark was 173-0.

Parlin came back to win the shotput in a personal-best 66-7 1/2.

“I just want to PR from now until the end of the season,” Parlin said of shotputting.

Later, Sims won the 400 easily in a personal and section best of 48.08.

“I went out and tried to take no prisoners,” Sims said. “My coach (Al Britt) tells me I still have a lot to learn about the 400. He’s right, too.”

In the 200, Sims lost to Jack Bellamy of Thousands Oaks by .02--Bellamy winning in 21.70.

It was only a sign of things to come for Esperanza.

When Louie Quintana of Arroyo Grande blew past the pack halfway through the 3-A 800, the race seemed to be his for the taking. Only Mike Terry of El Modena broke free from the others to chase Quintana, the nation’s fastest 800 runner this season.

With 200 to go, Quintana, who had earlier buried the 1,600 field in 4:09.28, had five yards on Terry and looked strong.

But with 125 left, Terry shifted into a gear Quintana seemed unable to find. His move was quick and calculated.

“I started to think about Arcadia,” Terry said.

In a similar position at the Arcadia Invitational April 13, Terry caught Quintana, but “I just stayed with him. This time I went past him. I wanted to dictate (the race) to him.”

Terry won in a personal-best 1:52.95 with Quintana second in 1:53.18 and Mike Hancock of Newport Harbor third in 1:55.87.

“(Quintana) really got me going when he went by at 400,” Terry said. “I just said, ‘What am I doing? I’m not going to let him get away one inch.’ ”

Following his victory in the 3-A 110-meter high hurdles, Adrian Brown of Huntington Beach talked about his start (bad, again), the competition (tough, again) and his nerves (bad, again). Finally, he remembered he had indeed won his race.

“I just thought about that,” said Brown, who won in a wind-aided 14.34. “This is the first time I won CIF. I just realized that right now.”

Charlie Davidson of Saddleback was second in 14.74 and Brent Busch of Newport Harbor was third in 14.83.

Kevin Carlson of Katella, the defending state high jump champion, won the 3-A with a jump of 6-10. Terry Mann of Sunny Hills won the 2-A high jump with a leap of 6-5.

Boys’ Notes

La Habra’s Mark Gonzales won the 2-A 3,200 in 9:20.35. . . . Vince Church of Kennedy won the 2-A triple jump, going 47-6 1/2. . . . Tim Martin of San Clemente was second behind Ricky Carrigan of Compton in the 4-A 100. Carrigan, unbeaten this season, beat Martin, 10.48 to 10.56. In the 200, Martin was third (21.50) behind Carrigan (21.30) and Edward Hervey of Compton (21.47). . . . Dan Niednagel of Dana Hills finished second to Bryan Woodward of Long Beach Poly in the 4-A 800. Woodward ran 1:53.12 to Niednagel’s 1:54.75. . . . Chiron Hart of Brethren won the 1-A 400 in 50.23, was second in the long jump with a leap of 22-0 1/2 and seventh in the 200 in 22.63.