SOUTHERN SECTION TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS : Suspended Meet to Resume Tuesday With Triple Jump

Newspaper deadlines came and went, but several events were not completed until late Friday night at the Southern Section track and field championships at Cerritos College.

As midnight neared, the stadium was nearly deserted except for a handful of high jumpers, shotputters, their coaches, family and friends, and various meet officials.

Mark Parlin led a first-, second- and fifth-place finish by Esperanza’s shotputters, helping the Aztecs to a 50-40 lead over Santa Barbara and at least a share of the 3-A team championship. Final results will not be announced until the triple jump competition, postponed Friday because section officials feared it would run well past midnight, is completed Tuesday at Cerritos.

The high jump ran longest, finishing in odd fashion for Katella’s Kevin Carlson, who has a share of the Orange County record.

Carlson was declared the 3-A champion after meet officials ordered the competition halted at about 11:30. Ten jumpers had cleared 6 feet 6 inches when officials told the athletes they would all advance to Friday’s Masters meet. Carlson was told to go home.

The ruling went against established Southern Section finals procedure. The top nine finishers Friday advanced to the Masters meet in every other event.

Carlson, who jumped 6-11 3/4 this season to tie the county record, had jumped only four times since the event began at 8 p.m. And because he was the only 3-A jumper to clear 6-6, he was awarded first place.

He said it took some of the luster off his championship, but Carlson shrugged and said, “A first is still a first.”

After the 1-A and 2-A jumpers were dismissed, a jump-off was then held to determine the medal winners among the seven left in the 4-A division.

Parlin, a junior, won the shotput with a personal-best of 62 feet 6 1/2 inches, the second-best throw in the state this year. Brent Noon of Fallbrook leads the state and the nation with a toss of 76-2.

Mark Kinney, a senior at Esperanza, was second (58-0 1/2), and Mike Burns, a junior, was fifth (53-7 1/2).

“We needed that,” Esperanza shotput coach Bill Pendleton said Saturday. “We were down by 10 points going into the shot.”

Pendleton said the trio saw teammate Roshawn Sims pull up in the 200-meter race, grasping at his injured hamstring.

“They knew if they didn’t come through and place all three guys we were going to be out of it (team championship),” he said. “So the guys came through. I figured Parlin would win, but I was happy to see the other guys come on like that.”

Parlin, Kinney, Edison’s Lawson Mollica, who won the 4-A with a throw of 54-3 3/4, and Matt Jordan (second in the 4-A at 54-2 1/2) will advance to the Masters meet.

Tuesday’s triple jump will determine the 3-A team champion. Esperanza has a 10-point lead and the event’s winner receives 10 points. Esperanza has Clayton Tharrington jumping and Santa Barbara has Mike Thompson.