JAPHETH CATO That thought process began during his senior year at Bloom Trail High School
in Chicago Heights, which is a short distance from Cato's hometown, Crete (though his family is originally from New Jersey). Three years later, Cato is still thinking about it — competing in the decathlon –but his primary focus has been the indoor heptathlon. Rightly so, since Cato just broke a 14-year-old Big Ten record. By scoring 5,939 points in the seven events combined — 60 meters, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60 meter hurdles, pole vault and 1,000 meters – Cato also broke the school record by 178 points. That mark (5,761 points) belonged to Joe Detmer since 2007. Not only does Cato have the third-highest point total in the heptathlon this season — behind Arkansas' Gunnar Nixon (6,022 points) and Florida's Gray Horn (5,971) — but he is already the No. 9-ranked collegian of all-time. "I never knew that I could be this good, and I still don't,'' said Cato. "I keep
telling myself that I haven't won the war yet; I've only won some battles. That will keep driving me and pushing me.'' Although the BMOC acronym is a bit outdated, football's Montee Ball, bas- ketball's Jordan Taylor and hockey's Justin Schultz each still fall under the "Big Man On Campus'' heading.
Japheth Cato would be the BAOC – Best Athlete on Campus.
"When you talk to him, he has that little spar-
kle or twinkle in the eye,'' said UW men's track coach Ed Nuttycombe. "He's a wonderful, ef- fervescent personality that makes it fun to go to practice.''
More importantly, he stressed that Cato "is extremely hungry and coachable.'' Nuttycombe saw something very special in Cato when he began recruiting him. Mostly, he saw "an athletic physique'' and recognized that Cato "has the body to do whatever it is that he wants to do.'' Initially what he wanted to do was play foot-
ball. That was his first love. "I was all about foot- ball my freshman and sophomore year (of high school),'' said Cato, a wide receiver. It was by chance that the Bloom Trail track coach just happened to show up at a football
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practice when Cato was a sophomore and deliv- ered a recruiting pitch to any and all comers. "He said, 'Whoever wants to try out for track, this is your chance,''' Cato recalled. "Since a cou- ple of my friends on the football team were do- ing it, I thought, 'Why not? Let's see what I can do.'''
The following spring, Cato competed in one event: the high jump. "And I just progressed from there,'' he said. "My junior year I made it to state in the long jump and I just got better and better. That's when I really fell in love with track.'' So much so that he didn't play football as a junior. He had a change of heart as a senior and went back out for the team thinking that he might earn a tender. But he attracted only NCAA Division III interest.
