Johnson sets new record (05/20/04)

MUNCIE — The Patriots made one thing clear Wednesday. The farther they run, the better they get.

Alyssa Johnson shattered a 15-year-old sectional record as the Jay County girls track team swept the distance events at Muncie Southside en route to a fourth-place finish.

Johnson picked up two sectional titles, including setting the new standard in the 3,200-meter run, as she was one of six Patriots to qualify for next week’s regional meet. Jill Roughia also won a sectional championship, and the team finished with 621/3 points.

Other regional qualifiers from Jay County were Jessica Heitkamp, Nicole VanSkyock, Rose Weaver and Nicole Pfeifer.

“I’m excited,” said Johnson. “It’s always great to be able to go on (to regional). I’m proud of how many of us did get to go on.

“I’m especially proud to be able to win sectional.”

“Alyssa is just one of those runners you don’t see come along very often,” said Jay County coach Tyler Caldwell. “With a kid like that it’s just God-given ability and she’s working hard to make it even better.”

Muncie Central had four individual champions to take the team title with 115 points at the 11-team event. Winchester went without an individual championship, but took second with 901/3 points, and Delta was third with four individual titles and 881/3 points.

The top four finishers in each event advance to the regional meet Tuesday at Lawrence North. They will be joined by regional qualifiers from the sectional meets at Decatur Central, Lawrence Central and Pendleton Heights.

Johnson was challenged Wednesday — for about a half of a lap.

The sophomore got caught in a pack early in the 1,600-meter run, and stayed there for about 200-meters before breaking out to take the lead. She would have no such trouble in the 3,200.

From the starting gun she shot to the front of the two-mile race. By the time the second of the eight laps began her lead was pushing 20 meters, and the rest of the field just kept getting smaller and smaller in her rear-view mirror.

She clobbered the competition, lapping seven runners and winning by a margin of nearly 40 seconds and about 190 meters. Her time — 11-minutes, 53.97 seconds — was more than 20 seconds faster than she ran in winning the event last year, and destroyed the previous sectional record by eight seconds.

The previous mark was set in 1989 by Muncie Central’s Emily Longworth at 12:01.42. Holly Clevenger of Winchester was second to Johnson at Wednesday’s meet in 12:33.37.

Johnson was equally dominant in the 1,600, topping the second-place finisher by 13 seconds and about 70 meters. She finished in 5:26.56, with Delta’s Amy Rybarczyk behind her in 5:39.64.

“I was kind of worried because I was really trying to get out there and get up ahead (in the 1,600),” Johnson said. “Once I got up there I tried to make my move quick.”

She said she was going to make sure she got out in front as soon as possible in the 3,200.

“I thought to myself for the two-mile, even if I had too hard of a start, I could make it up at the end.”

Roughia took a while longer to step in front in the 800-meter run, but by the home stretch it was the rest of the field which was trying to make up ground.

Jackie Pettiford of Delta took the early lead in the race, but was never ahead by much as Roughia and three other runners stayed close behind and pulled even at the end of the first lap. Then it was time to make a move.

Roughia, who did not finish in the top four in an individual event last season, stepped in front on the first turn of the second lap. She never opened a large gap, but was never seriously challenged for the lead in the final 300 meters as she won in 2:27.12. Pettiford was second in 2:28.45.

“It feels great,” said Roughia of her first sectional title “I’ve been working for this. If you would’ve told me I would come this far I would’ve laughed because I wouldn’t have believed it until tonight.”

Caldwell credited the junior’s hard work as the reason she has made such a mammoth leap this season.

“It’s made for a phenomenal run,” he said. “She’s five seconds away from the school record right now in the 800.”

Johnson and Roughia also teamed with VanSkyock and Weaver to place second to Delta in the 4x800-meter relay in 10:19.39.

Roughia ran the anchor leg of the 4x400-meter relay, barely holding off Venessa Cork of Muncie Southside to earn the Patriots a fourth-place finish. She, along with teammates Heitkamp, Weaver and Pfeifer, finished the race in 4:24.72, just 14 hundredths ahead of Southside.

Heitkamp grabbed the other top-four Patriot finish despite being near the back of the pack about midway through the 400-meter dash. She made up a huge amount of ground around the final turn and shot to a second-place effort in 1:02.43 behind Central’s Kamille King (58.62).

“Overall, I’m pretty happy with it,” said Caldwell of his team’s effort. “We’re pretty inexperienced. To have a top-five finish at a sectional like this with a Muncie Central and a Delta, I’m extremely pleased.”[[In-content Ad]]