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Illinois Class AA track: Rocks' Johnson wins 400

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By Shannon Heaton | Saturday, May 17, 2008 9:19 PM CDT | () comments

CHARLESTON, Ill. — When Genesis Johnson began her Rock Island High School track and field career, a state championship was the furthest thing from her mind.

“It was always relays. Four by one (400), 4x2 (800), 4x4 (1,600). I never thought I’d run opens,” Johnson said.

After Saturday, her goals might have to expand even further.

Despite getting out to a slow start in the 400-meter finals — a race in which Evanston’s Adrienne Slaughter made up the stagger on her almost immediately — Johnson was unstoppable in the final 150 meters, surging past the entire field to win the state championship at OBrien Stadium on the Eastern Illinois University campus.

Johnson became Rock Island’s first individual champion since 1988.

“Oh, my God. I’m so shocked right now. I ran my hardest and came out with a win,” Johnson said. “That’s what I’ve always wanted — a win in the 400. Coach (Michelle Lillis) told me to stay with the pack and just go out at the end, and that’s what I did.

“At the 50 mark, I didn’t see her (Slaughter) next to me, and I just sprinted it in. I’m a state champ.”

Johnson’s time of 54.83 seconds was the fastest time in Illinois history since Morgan Park’s Alexandria Anderson ran 52.63 in 2005. No one else in Illinois, other than Anderson, has been faster than Johnson since 2001.

“I think God just helped me. I was so tired (after Friday’s preliminaries). We went out to eat, and my friends stayed up, but I went to bed to prepare for my race today,” Johnson said. “But it’s not about where you are, it’s what you expect yourself to be. And I expected myself to win today.”

Johnson added a sixth-place finish in the 200 and anchored the Rocks’ 400-meter relay to a third-place finish. Those efforts, plus Ciara Turner’s eighth in the 300 hurdles, gave Rock Island 11th place overall with 23 points, one shy of the top 10. And the Rocks are gunning for that — and more — in 2009, as no one who ran Saturday graduates this year.

“We have hardly any seniors ... mostly juniors, sophomores and freshmen,” Johnson said. “We have to work hard ... We have to stay focused wherever we go.”

Moline’s Aisha Praught couldn’t go under five minutes in the 1,600 run for a second consecutive day, but the Maroons senior still wound up with a seventh-place medal, finishing in 5:01.85.