NORWALK — For someone who runs like the wind, Johnathan Cabral really didn't need any help from it at Friday night's CIF-Southern Section Track and Field Masters Meet. But the remarkable Agoura High hurdler got it anyway.
Cabral raced to a wind-aided time of 13.27 seconds in winning the 110-meter hurdles at Cerritos College, a personal best for the national leader in the event. It was the fifth best wind-aided time in national high school history.
If the wind hadn't been pushing him along at 2.9 meters per second, he would've have broken the national record of 13.30 seconds.
And if that wasn't enough, he regained the national lead in the 300 hurdles with a time of 36.19.
Even though the Masters Meet is primarily designed to allow athletes simply to qualify for next week's state meet, Cabral was overjoyed by the mark he achieved in the 110.
"This is just the best thing that I've ever done," he said. "This is amazing to me. I'm so happy that I came out here and I did this."
"(The wind is) a little bit disappointing," he admitted. "But with that time, I know that I can go back, I have two more meets for state and I know that I can do it."
Cabral topped his previous personal best by a whopping 0.16 seconds.
In the 300 hurdles, he took over the national top spot by 0.15 seconds. Cabral pulled away from the crowd in the last 100 meters and won by nearly a second and a half.
The state championships are next Friday and Saturday at Buchanan High in Clovis.The Masters boys' 4x100 relay took some time to sort out. Originally it looked like both Oaks Christian and Rio Mesa had qualified for state. Oaks Christian finished second in 41.50, but five of the nine teams were disqualified, including Rio Mesa. The Spartans exchanged the baton out of the second passing zone. It wiped out a fourth-place finish in 42.11.
"I've never seen anything like it," Rio Mesa coach Brian FitzGerald said.
His team was trying to make up for the loss of star sprinter Blake Selig, who broke his leg in the CIF-SS prelims two weeks ago. The Spartans managed to win the Division 2 title last week, but couldn't qualify for state.
"Inexperience caught up with us today," FitzGerald said. "I'm proud of the kids. They battled through adversity to be CIF champs."
Oaks Christian sprinter Ishmael Adams said the Lions' 4x100 team has room to improve next week.
"Overall we did a good job," he said, "but our handoffs could be a little bit cleaner. On a full race around the track, we can get our time down to the low 41s."
Ventura County will send two athletes to Clovis in the girls' discus. Ventura's Alex Morgan won with a throw of 156 feet, 5 inches and St. Bonaventure's Amber Panapa was third in 137-1. Morgan also qualified in the shot put, finishing second in 43-0.
Sarah Baxter of Simi Valley was once again an easy winner in the girls' 3,200, winning by nearly nine seconds in 10:24.35. Senior Heyden Wooff of Camarillo qualified for another state meet in the boys' 3,200 in a season-best 8:57.77.
Ally Courtnall of Oaks Christian took 0.03 seconds off last week's time in the girls' 200, placing second in 24.04. In the boys 100, Vinnie Saucer of Oaks Christian qualified by placing fourth in 10.73 seconds. The Lions' 4x400 relay team also gained passage to the state meet, finishing fourth with an area all-time best of 3:45.93.
Newbury Park's Morgan Thompson placed fifth in the girls' 400 at 55.52 to qualify for state.
"There are definitely some things I know I can go faster on," Thompson said. "I just wanted to make sure I qualified. It's not quite as fast as I went in (the county meet, 55.50), but when I ran at 55.50, I was throwing up and wasn't feeling good. So it's good to see now that I can run at pretty much at the same time and have it feel a lot better."
Thompson's twin sister Megan made it in the 800 at 2:12.69 even though she finished 10th.
Other area qualifiers included Oak Park's Connor Stark, finishing fourth in the pole vault at 15-2; Phillip Hanley of Thousand Oaks in the boys' high jump, eighth at 6-5; and Raegan Nizdil of Rio Mesa in the girls' high jump, third at 5-5.
Missing out in the pole vault was Oaks Christian's Paul Vozzo on the boys' side and Kim Sanchez of Oaks Christian and Madison Stark of Oak Park on the girls' side. Also unable to qualify for state were Jazzelena Black of Pacifica and Lauren Anderson of Oaks Christian in the girls' triple jump; Oaks Christian's girls in the 4x100 relay; Edwin Herrera of Ventura in the boys' 1,600; Newbury Park's Sean Grumney in the boys' 800; and Matthew Ringgold of Simi Valley in the boys' long jump.
