ORANGE COUNTY TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS : Sims Puts On a Show to Lead Esperanza to the Meet Title

After accepting the track athlete of the meet and team championship trophies at the Orange County Championships Saturday, Esperanza High School’s Roshawn Sims hoisted them over his head and announced his next move.

“I’m not going to Disneyland,” said Sims, a junior. “ I’m going to Vegas!”

The way Sims performed on Saturday in front of nearly 1,000 spectators at Rancho Santiago College, he seemed to be on his way to a glittering future. The defending Southern Section 3-A 400-meter champion won that event in 49.24 seconds, breaking the meet record of 49.52 set last year by Canyon’s Jerard Bryant.

Sims also anchored Esperanza’s 400 relay team, which, hampered by baton exchange problems, finished second to San Clemente, 43.39 to 43.44.

Later, Sims won the 200 in 22.00 and then anchored Esperanza’s 1,600 relay team to victory with a 49.5 second split.

“I guess it has a lot to do with the training I’ve been doing,” Sims said. “My coach (Al Britt) has really been working me hard, running me longer, building my (strength) up so I can run in the 47s (in the 400) this year.”

In addition to Sims’ impressive day, the meet was highlighted by six meet records, though windy conditions helped many performances. Esperanza, the defending 3-A champion, easily outdistanced the 38 other teams to win the team title with 90 points. San Clemente was second with 58 followed by Saddleback (54), defending champion Capistrano Valley (33), Marina (32) and El Toro (25).

Esperanza also received a double-victory from junior Mark Parlin, who won the shot put (56-feet 5 1/2-inches) and discus (168).

While Parlin was impressive, Magnolia’s Phouphet Singbandith came away with the field athlete of the meet award, winning the long jump (23-3 1/2) and triple jump (49-3 1/4)--defending both titles from last year. Singbandith was not satisfied, however, as his marks were short of his personal records, including the 50-3 triple jump mark he set at last year’s meet.

Notes

Esperanza, whose girls’ teams have won the county title three times, became the only school to win county track and field titles in boys’ and girls’ divisions. . . . Saddleback’s Rob Price won the 1,600 in 4:19.71 to erase the former meet record of 4:23.07 set last year by Capistrano Valley’s Neil Stevenson, and later won the 3,200 in 9:23.74, breaking the meet record of 9:24.41 set last year by Santa Ana Valley’s Jimmy Rodriguez. . . . Marina’s Alan Grant set a meet record in the 800 (1:57.14), breaking Edison’s Teddy Bakers mark of 1:57.42. . . . In the 100, Los Alamitos’ Erik Mitchell had a good start, then pulled away from San Clemente’s Tim Martin in the final 50 meters to win in a meet-record 10.71. Martin was second in 10.73 and Ocean View’s Ben Cesar was third (11.09).