Tustin’s Marbley Raises the Bar for Competition

Seven feet is still the ultimate barrier in the boys’ high jump. Just ask Tustin High’s Alex Marbley.

Marbley not only flirted with 7-0 several times this season, but twice hit the mat thinking he had cleared the height.

At the Long Beach Relays on March 31, the bar came down as Marbley was coming off the mat to celebrate. Two weeks later in a dual meet against Saddleback, he again thought he cleared 7-0, but after a remeasuring, the bar proved to be a half-inch short.

“Those were heartbreaking,” said Marbley, a senior who only began high jumping last season.

But 6-11 1/2 is nothing to be ashamed about.

Whether it’s better facilities, advanced training or improved technique, county athletes are clearing heights former Olympians never approached during their high school careers.

Kevin Carlson became the first county jumper to clear 7 feet while a junior at Katella in 1991. Two years later, his brother, Brian, became the second.

In 1996, Cory Johnson of Los Alamitos became the third, and the next year, El Toro’s Elliott Parks set the current Orange County high school record of 7-2.

By comparison, it has been nearly two decades since a county record has fallen in a high school distance event, and those atop the sprints and field events have remained relatively unchallenged for the past 10 years. Most of the all-time lists in the record book begin with athletes from the 1970s and ‘80s.

El Toro Coach Larry Nitta, who coached Parks, believes the steady improvements are because of better facilities.

Today’s athlete benefits from cushioned runways that are built into most invitational venues, allowing more spring in their takeoffs. The landing pits have also become more forgiving, allowing jumpers to focus more on their takeoffs and less on their landings.

“I can still remember when guys were jumping into sand pits,” Nitta said. “Then it was sawdust for a while.”

Ed Caruthers finished eighth in the high jump at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, a year after he graduatedfrom Santa Ana Valley. He won a silver medal at the 1968 Olympics and was Track & Field News’ No. 1-rated high jumper in the world in 1967 and ’68.

The best he ever did in high school? Only 6-8 1/2. But that was good enough to win a state title and was the best mark in the nation by a high school athlete that year. It also remained the county’s best mark for the next nine years.

Caruthers, who used the old “straddle” method to clear the bar, jumped his personal best of 7-3 3/4 in Mexico City in 1968. But he lost the gold medal to Dick Fosbury--the Oregonian developed the revolutionary “Fosbury Flop,” which is still used today--who jumped an Olympic record 7-4 1/2.

After Tony Madau of El Dorado jumped 6-9 to break Caruthers’ record in 1972, others began to chip away at the seven-foot barrier. Doug Nordquist cleared 6-10 as a senior at Sonora in 1977, and later finished fifth at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Since Parks’ high school career, during which he won a state title as a junior in 1996 and jumped 7-2 to win a Southern Section Division II title the next season, the high jump competition has been rather uneventful.

But Marbley’s marks have changed that.

Marbley’s coach, Tustin assistant Pablo Guzman, credits his protege’s success to plyometrics, a training technique involving exercises such as leaping over cones and blocks and in and out of squares. This helps stretch the muscles quickly before contracting them, resulting in a type of “elastic strength,” Guzman said.

Marbley, winner of the Orange County high jump title this season and runner-up at the Arcadia Invitational, will compete Friday in the Southern Section Division II preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College, but it’s unlikely he will jump any higher than what it takes him to qualify for the section finals, May 19 at Cerritos College.

That’s when the competition really begins.

“His goals are to win state and he wants to get that 7-0 mark,” Guzman said. “I think he would rather win state, but it would be sweet if he got them both.”

ON THE SIDE

Hunter Orahood of San Clemente won the South Coast League high jump title Friday with a mark of 6-6, equaling the county’s third best this season.

Not bad for a part-timer, but don’t look for him the rest of the season. Orahood plays volleyball for the Tritons and jumps only in dual meets during the week.

“I just like to help the track team out whenever I can,” he said.

If you have an item or idea for the track and field report, you can fax us at (714) 966-5663 or e-mail us at dan.arritt@latimes.com

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TRACK TOP 10

Orange County Sportwriters’ Final Poll

GIRLS

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Pos. School League 1. Esperanza (1) Sunset 2. Mission Viejo (3) South Coast 3. Woodbridge (2) Sea View 4. Newport Harbor (5) Sea View 5. Santa Ana Valley (5) Century 6. Santa Margarita (10) Serra 7. Mater Dei (4) Serra 8. Corona del Mar (NR) Pacific Coast 9. Cypress (NR) Empire 10. Marina (NR) Sunset

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BOYS

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Pos. School League 1. Santa Margarita (1) Serra 2. Edison (2) Sunset 3. Mission Viejo (4) South Coast 4. Tustin (3) Golden West 5. Newport Harbor (5) Sea View 6. Valencia (6) Orange 7. Esperanza (8) Sunset 8. Fountain Valley (7) Sunset 9. Cypress (NR) Empire 10. Los Alamitos (10) Sunset

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Last week’s rankings in parentheses