Cross Country/Track & Field
Favorite athlete: Sydney McLaughlin
Favorite memory competing in sports: Every meet I compete at, good or bad
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: My best friend barking at me after I’d jump
Music on playlist: Joji, BTS, Coldplay
Future plans: I will be running for Emory University’s track and field team. I intend on majoring in chemistry, while also looking to be on a pre-law track.
Words to live by: “if there’s a will, there’s a way”
One goal before turning 30: Visit the Amazon rainforest
One thing people don’t know about me: I don’t know my lefts and rights
By GORDON GLANTZ
When Audrey Johnson tried soccer at the tender age of 5, her career was over before she was six. Next up, tennis.
More of the same.
“I tried tennis for, like, half a year but I hated it,” she recalled.
Johnson was fine with her life as a non-athlete until middle school, at which point she learned that she could run and jump a little bit better than her schoolmates.
Still, it was no big deal.
“I did track just to have something to do,” Johnson said. “I guess I was one of the better ones, so I figured that I found something athletic that I could do. I never saw myself even doing a sport, necessarily. It wasn’t a priority at all. It was just something that I did.”
Here she is, with a pending appearance in the PIAA State Meet in the 4x4 relay and graduation from CB South around the corner. She has to pinch herself.
Johnson’s resume includes qualifying for districts in six different events –100m, 200m, Long Jump, Triple Jump, 4x100m relay, and 4x400m relay -- and the ultimate student-athlete will be wearing the same title heading southbound to Emory University in Atlanta.
“I was not good at track when I first started,” she reflected. “I really wanted to be good, and I am where I wanted to be in ninth grade, but, yet, it’s so weird.
“It sounded so ridiculous coming out of my mouth when I was in ninth grade, but I did it. I think it shows that if you want something bad enough, you have to go out there and make it happen.”
Making Strides
Johnson traces her desire to break away from the pack to her freshman year at CB South.
“I did winter and spring track in ninth grade, plus I did preseason lifting (in the fall),” she said. “That entire year made me want to be better at it and just try to get good.”
From there, the progression continued.
“I saw the biggest difference between my 10th grade year and my 11th grade year because I spent the entire summer weightlifting,” she said. “I didn’t realize how much that helped, just doing something in the offseason. I saw a huge leap in my performances. It was really exciting, but I didn’t expect it at all.
“I started as only a jumper. Tenth grade is when I got in some relays. I was just an extra leg. I wasn’t the fastest on those relays, but I wasn’t the slowest, either. Jumping, though, was my focus up until this year.”
Johnson, who credits her steady progression to dedication in the weight room during the fall, became a scholastic sprinter by happenstance.
“I didn’t expect that. I ran the 100 once in ninth grade,” she said. “I hadn’t touched the 100 since. This year, during time trials, I did reasonably well. So, I said, ‘OK, I’ll run the 100.’ I ended up running a lot of 100s this season.”
While track is an individual sport, she sacrificed for the good of team by taking part in the relays in lieu of individual events.
“I had a talk with my coach, and it really opened my eyes,” she said. “I’ve been with these girls for so long. I’ll get to run so many more 100s and do long jump in college. I’ll never get to run with these girls again, so this is the time to do it.”
Johnson’s success, according to coach Jason Gable, is the direct result of her dedication and hard work.
“Audrey has been an integral part of both of those relays competing at districts, even sacrificing her own individual events to help get the relay teams to continue on,” he said. “Only a few athletes can ever say they qualified for the District One Championships in six events. All of her hard work and dedication to track and field throughout her years provides the team and younger athletes with a prime example of what patience and focus and drive can get you in the end.”
Season On The Brink
As hard as it is to conceive, Johnson’s magical senior season almost didn’t happen.
Having suffered through injuries to her knee and upper quad, and thinking that losing her junior season when COVID shut it all down meant that her chances to run in college were lost, she gave thought to not crossing the finish line.
“During the pandemic, I almost gave up on track,” she said. “It just, like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ We didn’t have a season. Gyms were closed. I didn’t have a weight rack in my house. I didn’t really see a possibility of even doing track in college.
“That was a really hard time. I thought I really needed that junior season to get times to run for college. Then, everything shut down. I totally shut down, too. I took a total break from the sport. Back in September, when we started doing (cross country) preseason. I knew I couldn’t give it up.”
So she began looking into track programs at schools that met her academic standards.
“The time off made me realize four years wasn’t enough in high school,” Johnson said.
Finding Her Way
While Johnson admittedly has a bit of an issue over a sense of direction, she certainly knows where she is headed in life.
Her college search was like putting together pieces of a puzzle with track only being a part of a larger mosaic.
While heading that far from home wasn’t in the early playbook, Emory checked off all the boxes, both academically and athletically.
“I started looking at engineering schools with strong chemistry programs,” said Johnson, who has a 4.28 weighted GPA and who also considered Swarthmore College but ultimately felt it was too small for her needs.
“For the student size, (Emory) just has so much to offer,” she said. “It’s a near a big city, which is what I wanted for internships. The location worked out great, although it is way further south than I was expecting to go. When we visited the campus and I met the team and the coaches, I knew it was a really good fit for me.”
What Emory will be getting back in Johnson is the epitome of a serious student-athlete.
Said Gable: “What can I say about Audrey? She’s probably one of the most dedicated and hardest working student-athletes we’ve ever had come through our program. She’s an Honors student and summa cum laude graduate. Her high achievements in athletics is easily matched by her academics. As a student, she is respected by all the faculty and is a very respectful and appreciative young lady.”
Reflections
Johnson not only wanted to thank her family for their support, especially during the “ups and downs,” but also Gable and the rest of the coaching staff.
“All the coaches, they did so much for me,” she said. “They made me really love doing the sport. I would rather stay at practice than do my work half the time. I could stay at practice forever and not get bored.”
To say the feeling is mutual would be a vast understatement.
“We are extremely proud to have had the opportunity to coach Audrey over all her formative years,” said Gable. “We are thrilled that she is achieving at the level she is and competing at States on the 4x4 and also continuing to compete at the collegiate level. (We) are saddened that our time together for this chapter is coming to a close - very bittersweet.”
When she reflects on her success as both a student and an athlete, Johnson has come to learn that each fed into the other.
“I think doing track actually made my grades better,” she said. “It may sound weird because, technically, I had less time. It made me have to get my work done. It made me a very organized person. I always found time to get all my work done and even start to work ahead.”
Looking to the immediate future after the state meet but before commencement, she admits that boredom may set in.
“I have to take two weeks off from track after states, and it’s going to be so bad. I don’t know how bored I’m going to get,” she said.
But, with so much to look forward to, she knows the boredom is a short-term condition.
“I’m just so excited,” she said.
