Johnathon Cabral is headed to the University of Oregon.
Photo by Louis Lopez
Look at the hurdlers who have come to run at the Arcadia Invitational — David Klech and Reggie Wyatt of California, Ricky Harris of Virginia, Deworski Odom of Pennsylvania.
Short or long, high or intermediate, none has performed at the level
Agoura (Calif.) senior Johnathon Cabral did Saturday night in the Arcadia Invitational, the top West Coast invitational of the season.
Cabral posted the fastest double in the meet's 44-year history when he made quality runners like
Coolidge (Washington, District of Columbia) senior Demetrius Lindo and
Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland, Calif.) senior Alan Williams look positively pedestrian while setting the meet record in the 110-meter high hurdles at 13.43 with a legal wind of 1.0-meters per second.
He added an exclamation point when he also captured the 300-meter event by more than a full second in 36.42 seconds, which was equal to the sixth fastest time in meet history by a pretty fair hurdler named George Porter of Lompoc High in Camarillo in 1985.
And to make it more amazing, it was his first invitational of the season after running eye-opening times in dual meets.
"I'm alright with this being my first one, it gave me something to look forward to," said the future Oregon Duck. "It's amazing I was able to do as well as I did (in the 110s) because I had five eggs, 10 pieces of bacon in two sandwiches with cheese for breakfast.
"I usually eat a little lighter."
Cabral said his father/coach John has been working with his start, going so far as to change his lead foot in the starting blocks so he could get to the first hurdle quicker. He admitted that it worked big-time as he felt much quicker and that it put him in position to snap his leg down quicker.
As a result, Cabral led the race from wire-to-wire to improve on his season (13.64) and all-time best (13.63) times. It also put him in the right frame of mind to give some serious thought to the state record of 13.39 set by another former Arcadia Invite champ Kevin Craddock of Union City James Logan in 2004.
He figures with a little warmer weather — it was in the 50s Saturday — additional competition and some hard work in practice, it'll be there.
"What made this race so fast is the others in the field got out fast and pushed me," he said.
Not so much in the longer race where he again heeded his dad's advice and scorched the first 100 meters, opening a huge lead to complete his second straight Arcadia double—another record of sorts. He never slowed down, either.
"I'm a power runner now," said Cabral, who left second place Jalen Craver of
Woodbridge-Irvine (37.79) and
Mater Dei-Santa Ana's Sam Barkley (37.94) well behind. "My dad has been trying to get me to run that first 100 hard and while we usually agree, I just never did it.
"We talked about it and also about giving every last ounce I have in that race. I've told people I hate it, but not really. It's fun."
Cabral was asked if he could hear the large Agoura contingent cheering for him and had to admit not.
"It's all just a loud buzz," he said. "With all the things that are going on around me, I just try to focus. Mentally, I block it all out—the crowd, the weather—everything."
He says it's all a blur, just like what the opponents saw trying to beat him.
