Jason Johnston
Barry Faulkner
While the often-overmatched com-petition strains to catch up with
Estancia High track and field standout Jason Johnston, he maintains a
personal pursuit of his own: hoping to catch a break.
Johnston has performed at a high level throughout his three-year
varsity career with the Eagles, earning consistent points in the
110-meter high hurdles, the 300 intermediate hurdles, the long jump
and the triple jump. But the next time he competes at full strength,
might be his first.
“He has been having a lot of good meets and he’s not even
healthy,” Estancia Coach Steve Crenshaw said.
Johnston overcame a heel problem last season to win the Pacific
Coast League long jump title. He was also third in the high hurdles,
fourth in the intermediates and fourth in the triple jump at league
finals as a sophomore.
The trouble, however, was just beginning. Surgery to repair a
dislocated shoulder required a 10-month recovery, six months of which
he was unable to run. In addition to costing him his junior football
season, the surgery severely hampered any offseason track and field
training. Johnston said he lost all muscle tone in the shoulder, but
worked hard in physical therapy, not only on regaining strength in
the shoulder, but strengthening his legs, as well. Once he was
allowed to begin running, he said it took little time to regain his
form in the hurdles and jumps.
Early this season, however, he landed awkwardly in an uneven jump
pit and strained his lower back in a Golden West League dual meet at
Saddleback. Then, while still nursing a bad back, he was bitten by
the flu bug.
Johnston, though frustrated at times by the continuing string of
ailments, has refused to relent. Despite being sick and still a bit
gimpy, he swept his four events in Thursday’s league dual-meet
victory over Orange. What’s more, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week
put up the kind of marks that most healthy competitors would aspire
to.
He won the high hurdles in 16.1, a mere half-second off his
personal record and six seconds ahead of his closest competitor. His
43.6 clocking in the 300 hurdles was more than five seconds faster
than the runner-up and just two-tenths off his PR. He went 20-4 1/2
in the long jump and 40-2 in the triple jump, events in which his
career bests are 22-6 and 40-11, respectively.
“He was so sick against Orange, I wasn’t sure, before the meet,
that he was going to make it,” Crenshaw said. “Before the 300
hurdles, I asked him how he was feeling and he couldn’t even get a
sentence out without coughing. I wasn’t sure he had the wind to run
the race, because it’s a tough one, especially when you’re not
breathing well. But he sucked it up and did it. To win four events in
that condition says something about what a competitor he is.”
Crenshaw has also been impressed with Johnston’s character and
work ethic and believes the talented junior is a shining example to
all his athletes.
“He didn’t practice Monday, but he was there at practice trying to
learn,” Crenshaw said. “Then, when the team went to the weight room,
he actually lifted a little bit.”
That dedication has helped Johnston pick up the highly technical
hurdle events, though he did not run a competitive hurdles race until
late in his freshman season.
“We kind of threw him into the hurdles because he had fooled
around and shown pretty good form and we needed a few points to try
to win a league meet,” Crenshaw recalled. “He has a lot of athletic
ability, but he has also become very technical.”
Now, the hurdles has joined the long jump as Johnston’s favorite
events.
“I like the challenge [of the hurdles],” he said.
Johnston is also driven by the challenge of the school long jump
record of 23-4, set by Eric Dorn in 1986. And, there is as the
“family record” of 22-11, established by his uncle.
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