No hurdle is too high for Agoura's Johnathan Cabral

When Johnathan Cabral was 9 years old, his father introduced him to track and field, never knowing the incredible journey it would produce.

"I was in youth track when I was a little kid and it was a positive experience," said the father, named John like his dad before him. "I was on the 4x100 relay team and we went to the Junior Olympics where we won a gold medal.

"Later on I noticed that some of the runners who weren't as fast as I was were getting college scholarships because they had switched to the hurdles. I'd never run the hurdles, not once."

That's significant because Johnathan just happens to be the nation's top high school hurdler and is still coached by his dad.



The Agoura (Calif.) senior cemented his place in the 44th Arcadia Invitational annals last weekend when he broke the meet record by roaring to a time of 13.43 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles before capturing the 300-meter intermediates in 36.42 seconds.

In both races, where he was the defending champion, the event was all but over after the first hurdle and Johnathan gave ample credit to his dad for his improvement.

"We switched my legs in the starting blocks about a month ago," said Johnathan. "It allows me to get to the first hurdle faster and sets me up for the rest of the race."

It took the hurdler a few meets — four to be exact — before he truly felt comfortable changing something he'd been doing since he was 9. As might be expected, not only between athlete and coach but especially between son and father, there was a little tension.

"It took him a while to really feel the difference and then in a dual meet two weeks before Arcadia it all clicked," said the father. "He said after that race, ‘Dad, you're right.' He's so strong that I knew once he was over the first hurdle at Arcadia that he would win.

"There's a very fine line coaching your son. I've seen parents who were almost abusive to their kids and I didn't want to be that, I didn't want to cross that line. But I'll also admit that when other runners say they're a little sore, I'll tell them to sit out. Not with Johnathan. I really do expect more from him, I know his potential."



Clint Cummings, the head coach at Agoura, certainly has no qualms about having John coaching the hurdlers, especially Johnathan. But after taking the job three weeks before the start of the season, it took just one practice to see the chemistry between father and son had produced something very special.

"The first race was a real eye-opener," said Cummings. "Watching Johnathan was like watching an Olympian. He has strength and his form is beautiful. Oh, he'll nick a hurdle now and then, but he rarely knocks one down.

"The thing about Johnathan is that despite his ability, he's a real team player. He is encouraging the others and is constantly cheering. He's like a coach on the track and he himself is extremely coachable. You tell him something once and he implements it." {PAGEBREAK} Johnathan, like any teenager, occasionally locks horns with his father and expresses his independence in numerous ways. But he shares the same goals and can't knock the success that has produced a full-ride scholarship to the University of Oregon and the nation's fastest times.

The goals are pretty special and could come as soon as the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational this weekend.

"I want the state record (13.39) and I want to break 36 (in the 300s)," said Johnathan, who might have gotten the state mark at Arcadia but came off the last hurdle awkwardly and staggered to the finish line. "The first hurdle is the key. I want to get to that hurdle as fast as I can. Getting over the hurdle, getting your lead foot down, makes you faster. I haven't changed my number of steps between hurdles or anything. The less time you spend in the air, the better."

Standing 6-foot-3 ½ certainly helps, but clearly it's his form that makes him a threat to eclipse the high hurdle record of 13.08 seconds by Wayne Davis of Southeast High in Raleigh, N.C. in 2009.



Johnathan has decent speed — 11.1 in the 100 — but there are plenty of others in the race who are faster. Just last week one of his victims came in with a best of 10.5 in the 100. He doesn't run on the 4x100 relay like many hurdlers because Agoura is not loaded with sprinters this year.

His forte is the shorter race, but he's not half bad in the 300s, an event he calls "the hardest in track and field."

"I run that race to survive," said Johnathan, who scorched the first 100 meters of that event at Arcadia and used his incredible strength to simply pull away for the win. "It would be hard enough if it were just (sprinting) a 300, but then you put hurdles in the way.

"That event is unforgiving. At the state meet last year, I had a problem with the second hurdle and before I knew it, the entire field had gone past me."

Although he finished fifth, Johnathan realized that one hesitation, one mistake at a high-level meet can produce disastrous results, so he went back to polishing his form. He also has already started to test the college hurdles, which at 42 inches are three inches higher than the high school barriers. While he's zeroed in on eclipsing state and even national records this spring, he can hardly wait to start at Oregon.

"School has a priority over track and my social life," said Johnathan, 18. "When I visited Oregon, I felt like I fit right in."



That might be because when he needs some time away from the big-city environment that is Agoura, a suburb of Los Angeles, Johnathan heads to the mountains — specifically the fresh air of Mammoth Mountain.

"I'm an avid outdoorsman," he admits. "I like rock climbing, hiking, camping. There's nothing better than a hard hike or climbing up Lady Face (one of the rocks he scales) during the summer. It's so tranquil, so peaceful."

A little like Eugene, Oregon.