No one with a heart so heavy should be that fast. After winning the 100-meter hurdles, Gabriella Cunningham, still in the clear, got about nine strides past the finish line, cocked her head and shrugged, the way Michael Jordan did during the 1992 NBA Finals.
Dad would’ve loved that.
“My dad taught me so much more than I could ever imagine,” the Grandview track star and Class 5A state champ in the 100-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles, said Saturday at Jeffco Stadium after her second medal of the day. “And he tells me things every day.”
“What was he saying on Saturday?” I asked.
She pondered.
“Actually, he would always say, like, ‘Go, go, go, G.’ That was his thing,” Cunningham replied with a knowing grin. “And I was just telling myself (Saturday), ‘Go, go, go, G.’ I’d never been like, ‘Go, go, go,’ before.”
It runs in the blood. It runs like the wind. Cunningham is bound for LSU this summer, the top-rated women’s outdoor track program in the country last week, according to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Her father, the late T.J. Cunningham, was was a star at Overland High back in the day, and later became an All-Big Eight standout with the CU Buffs, where he played wideout and defensive back. Dad wound up getting taken in the sixth round of the 1996 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks.
“It’s going fast,” Gabriella’s mother, Lissette Ellerbe, reflected as her daughter’s last-ever CHSAA state track and field championships wrapped up.
“Literally, it was like, ‘Oh, you’ve got a couple months,’ to, ‘Yeah, we’ve got a couple weeks.’ So yeah, it’s sped everything up. I’m just trying to embrace every second I have with her before she goes to college.”
Gabriella is, too. As the public address announcer saluted her second title of the day and the successful defense of her 2023 100 and 300 hurdle crowns, she danced a mini-jig on the track. On the medal stand a few minutes later, she playfully posed with hands at her temple, as if adjusting an imaginary crown, Saturday’s Queen of the Hurdles.
“I think (these championships) were different because it was the first time I had the target on my back,” Cunningham said. “(Usually), there’s an older person that’s getting after it, and I’m like, ‘I’ve gotta go get her.’ This year, I knew that I was the focus and I knew that people wanted to (go after) Gabriella Cunningham. So I had to put on a show.”
She did. On a blustery day that added bluster to Cunningham’s luster, she finished the 300 hurdles with a 42.10, a second or so quicker than Alexa Queen of Fountain-Fort Carson (43.19) and a hair behind the Wolves standout’s personal record of 41.96, set on May 4.
“I executed my start beautifully,” she recalled with a grin. “Then the third hurdle, I had a little bit of an ‘Oh …’ and never in my life have I ever said ‘Come on,’ in the middle of a race. But I had to knock myself back into the race. I was like, ‘Hold on, Gabriella.’”
No one with that many scars should smile so easily. In February 2019, when Gabriella was 13, her father, an assistant principal at Hinkley High, was shot and killed in a dispute with a neighbor. In July 2020, her eldest sister, Tiana Lynn Cunningham, was pursuing her master’s degree at UNC when she was killed in a car accident.
“She’s just a really, really tough kid to get through everything,” Ellerbe said.
Only what should harden the heart softened the soul. Gabriella took on the big sister role, embraced a mentor’s duty of care, and did what came naturally.
She ran with it.
“It definitely makes me wants to be a better role model,” the future SEC sprinter explained. “Where you just understand that they’re capable of (anything). No matter what they say, no matter who says anything to them, that if you have a dream, you’re going to go get it.”
Cunningham pointed at the west stands.
“Every meet, my dad and sister sit right there,” she continued. “Any meet, at any place, they’re always at the 50-meter mark with me. I always dedicate a spot (in the stands) to them.”
When they’re not in the stands, they sleep in her mind.
After that third hurdle in the 300, an old, familiar voice awakened.
Go, go, go, G, it whispered.
Go, go, go.
Dad. Always.
“It’s a blessing,” Cunningham said, eyes welling. “Oh, sorry. I’m going to get teary.
“You know, losing my father was probably one of the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. Losing my big sister, I was just like, ‘Take a deep breath and just get after it.’
“I think that’s why I’m so ambitious with my goals. And that’s why I strive to be the best individual I can be. Because I know my father and sister would be right on my shoulders, telling me exactly what to do. So I definitely carry that tradition.”
The Queen of the Hurdles chuckled as she dabbed away a tear. With the other hand, she flattened the palm, forever royal, and tapped it over that giant heart, scars and all. When you run with angels, every road feels like paradise. Especially the last.
