He took an early lead in the 1500-meter run at the Horizon League championships Sunday, and whenever someone made a charge behind him, he held them off by digging deep and shifting into another gear.
“It tends to be easier to follow than to lead, and I was just watching and responding to any moves people made,” Johnson said
“I matched their moves to stay in the position I had, and, when I needed it, I tried to make people hurt.”
Johnson, a grad student from Beavercreek, made his lone season of eligibility with the Raiders pay off. His winning time of 4 minutes, 02.26 seconds was just ahead of Youngstown State’s Tyler Clark (4:02.42).
He was barely edged out in the 800, finishing second, while also running a leg on the eighth-place 4-by-400-meter relay team.
He had a jam-packed three days at the league meet at YSU, having to first get through qualifying heats. And he may have pulled off the 1500-800 double with fresher legs.
“It was a hard turnaround,” Johnson said, noting the two finals were only an hour apart. “Having four races already on my legs for the weekend, I knew it was going to be tough competition.
“In the 800, I got out a little slow. But I fought hard and felt like I had a chance of winning. But the other man had a better day.”
The Raiders are in their first season of men’s outdoor track, making Johnson the program’s first official league champion.
Coach Rick Williamson said others have run at the league meet as individuals, but their finishes didn’t count in the final standings.
The Raiders had other notable showings, but Johnson — whose sisters, Emma and Anna, are distance runners in the program — had the only first. The women finished ninth out of 10 teams and the men seventh of eight.
Williamson likened Johnson to Nathan Dunn, a four-time all-league cross country runner from 2016-19, and said: “He’s just a mature, coachable, level-headed individual. He’s logical, and he thinks things through.
“He’s super consistent — which is great for the younger guys to see: This is the work you need to put in, and this is the attitude you have to have. If you do it over a period of time, you’re going to get really good.”
Johnson was a Division-II All-American at Ashland, helping the Eagles to the 2021 national title.
But COVID-19 derailed his 2022 season. He took time off from running and then joined the Raiders last fall, building back his endurance.
He’s 24 and earned a bachelor’s degree and Master’s in the computer field at Ashland. He’s working on another Master’s at Wright State.
He already has a full-time job at EUS, Inc., in Dayton as a software developer.
“There’s plenty of days when I’m waking up at 6 o’clock to get my first workout in and then, after my job, going to the track and getting another workout in — on top of doing schoolwork, too. It’s been a busy time,” he said.
He credits Williamson with helping him make steady progress after his illness to become an even better runner.
“The goal all along was to be as successful as I’ve been this season, but it’s hard to know back then. When you’re down, you want to get back to the levels you were, but you never know for sure,” he said.
“The fact I was able to get back to where I was — and even run faster this year — I’m very grateful.”
Wright State is making more of a commitment to track, and Williamson expects to double his men’s and women’s rosters in 2023-24.
Junior Kaitlyn Miller, who spent all year recovering from a broken hip, finished second in the 3000-meter steeplechase and sixth in the 5K.
Sophomore Cierra Lively was fifth in the high jump and junior Alex McCarty fifth in the 10K.
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