Knee bent, head down, heart pounding, Jackson Johnson waits for the gun. You can feel the tension in the air. His hands behind the line shake with adrenaline as he anticipates the start of the race and his chance to prove himself faster than the rest.

BANG!

His neon, almost weightless “heels without the heel” track shoes bite into the rubberized surface of the track with quarter inch spikes, giving Johnson traction like Velcro to a wool sock. This new found grip gives him an early advantage and lets him ration his energy for the remainder of the race ahead of him. He hugs the turns to cut down the total distance he runs, and in the last 100m he bursts into an all-out sprint in the hopes that he can pass his competitors and clutch the race.

Although Johnson is quick, he didn’t start off as a pure bred sprinter. Johnson has played soccer ever since he was little, going to countless practices. He was good at soccer, but it became boring for him, so he began a search for a new sport.

“People told me I should join track because I was sort of fast in soccer” Johnson said.

They were right too, because Johnson qualified in the first Highland meet for an invitational
(a track meet where runners are required to meet a certain time before they are
even allowed to compete). This is exceptional for any runner, let alone a
freshman who is a fairly recent convert to the sport.

Johnson’s race of choice is the 400m dash, which is one full lap
around the track, long enough to test the endurance of any sprinter. In his
heat at the invitational, Johnson made third place, and is just two seconds
slower than highlands freshman record for the 400m. If Johnson can make up those
two seconds during the season, he will set the new freshman record at Highland
for the 400m dash.

Johnson also has the unique experience of being on the varsity team despite being only a freshman.

“Jackson is really good, and is a great addition to the team.” Ashton McMahon (one of Johnson’s friends on the team) said.

Johnson also competed in a medley relay race at the invitational. A
medley is a relay race that consists of two 200m dashes, one 400m dash, and one
800m dash. Johnson ran the 400m, helping his team keep their first place lead.
In the end their team came in second, having only gotten passed in the last
straight of the race. Competing against some of the fastest people in the state
makes their medley time quite the achievement.

It is apparent that Johnson has a gift for speed, and doing this well this early in the season means he will almost certainly beat the old freshman record and set his own here at Highland.