State medalist (05/31/08)

BLOOMINGTON - Amanda Johnson is walking away just the way she hoped - with a state medal, and no regrets.

In her third and final opportunity at the IHSAA Girls Track and Field State Finals Friday night at Indiana University, the Jay County High School senior did just enough to reach her goals. She edged junior Haley Miller of Brownsburg by just thousandths of a second to take ninth place in the 800-meter run.

The top nine competitors out of 27 in each event earn state medals.

"I'm not going to lie. At first I felt a huge relief," said Johnson, who entered the meet as the No. 13 seed. "I knew if I was in the (Miller's) situation that I would be crushed. ... Being on the bubble that close and not getting it I think would be really hard. I almost cried. It was just a great way to finish my season and my high school career."

The last JCHS athlete to medal in track was Nick Hoffman, who finished sixth in the boys 300-meter hurdles in 2002. Johnson becomes the first female to earn a state medal since Kerri McClung won back-to-back state shot put titles in 1999 and 2000.

"It's just absolutely huge," said JCHS coach Brian McEvoy. "There's so many factors that have to go in to make that happen. It's just something so special. ... I think that she'll be somebody girls on our team look up to. It's a very proud moment for her. As a coach, you can't be any happier. It's an amazing thing. I can't imagine how happy she feels ..."

The race started off at the blistering pace as Johnson started from the second lane. She was in the middle of the pack in the 14-runner fast heat, which finished off the first 400 meters in barely more than a minute.

She was between fifth and 11th places for much of the middle 600 meters before swinging wide coming down the home stretch.

She passed several runners in the final 100 meters, and finished in a virtual dead heat with Miller.

"I don't like to run it that way," Johnson said. "I thought if I ran out really fast that first lap I wouldn't get boxed in. But I got boxed in really bad. So for the finishing stretch I had to go way out to be able to finish hard. It was a hard race."

Johnson and Miller were neck-and-neck for eighth place in the fast heat with matching times of 2-minutes, 17.72 seconds. And with Kate Desimone of Fort Wayne Canterbury already in ahead of them at 2:17.41 from the previous heat, the tie needed to be broken for the final state medal.

Looking all the way to the thousandths place, Johnson recorded an official time of 2:17.715 to finish just ahead of Miller's 2:17.719.

Johnson said she started running mainly because of her sister, Alyssa, but now feels like she has finally come into her own.

"Those were some big shoes to fill," Amanda said of Alyssa, who now runs cross country and track at Taylor University. "I feel like now I'm finally doing this because it's something I enjoy. You can't take away the great feeling after a great race like tonight."

The state-medal race was the second-fastest of Johnson's career. The only time she ran faster was at last year's state meet, when she crossed the finish line in a school-record time of 2:17.43.

Sharon Donnally's school record of 2:22.4 stood for 24 years before Johnson broke it as a sophomore.

She won the 1,600 run sectional title as a freshman before taking the 800 run three straight times. In regional competition she finished third as a sophomore, second as a junior and third this season.

Johnson recorded state finishes of 25th and 11th before reaching the medal podium this year.

"It was really hard not to psyche myself out before the race started," she said. "With it being my last year there was a lot of pressure ... I really just wanted to run my race and be able to finish without any regrets. And I feel like I did."

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