A year of improvement helped Angel Johnson finish just where she had hoped.
The Ewing High School sophomore reached the pinnacle of the state track and field scene when she qualified for the Meet of Champions in the girls 100-meter hurdles with a 14.69-second personal record at groups. It capped a season in which Johnson improved in each of her events.
“I feel like, obviously, I improved a lot, and I’m really happy with my results within such a short time period with racing and meets,” Johnson said. “There weren’t as many meets that I raced in, but I feel really happy with it and how much I improved.”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Johnson is building something special. She has been interested in carpentry since watching home improvement television shows at a young age with her father, Blue Devils girls track and field coach Dan Johnson.
“They were like two-hour shows, and we just sat through a whole bunch of them,” Johnson said. “And I had Lego bricks and stuff like that, and I just loved building.”
Next year, Johnson will do shared time at Mercer County Technical School. In the mornings, she’ll get to pursue her interest in carpentry there before returning to EHS in the afternoon for more traditional classes. She can continue with shared time as a senior, too.
“It’ll set me up for college, or I can get a job right after that,” Johnson said.
Beyond school, Johnson has been building her athletic legacy since putting more focus on track. She grew up doing a bevy of sports: cheerleading, gymnastics, soccer, basketball, tennis and softball. In sixth grade, though, she turned her attention to track and began to do hurdles.
“I wouldn’t say it was the best time, of course, since I was younger and I had done totally different sports in the past,” Johnson said. “Just jumping to hurdles, it was really hard.”
But it wasn’t completely out of her comfort zone, and the appeal of her new event had a background to it. The hurdles had a little crossover with one of her other activities.
“Honestly, it’s kind of weird because I really liked cheer back then, and there’s this one jump called the hurdler or herkie, and I really liked doing those,” Johnson said. “So it was like a mindset of, I can do those constantly. So it was kinda cool.”
By high school, Johnson was finding her stride, and she made an impact last year sprinting, high jumping and hurdling. It took time and effort from Johnson. Her dad has been front and center to see her emergence, watching her commitment as a parent first and now as a coach to get to her current ability.
“It was just continuing to develop and just get better at the craft and continuing to work on it,” he said. “And that was both Angel and myself just working at it. Not so much just me as a parent and as a coach saying, hey, let’s go to the track. It was also her saying, hey, let’s go to the track.”
The work has paid off. In her first year with the Blue Devils, she reached the Group 2 state meet by finishing third in the Central Jersey Group 2 hurdles. She was also eighth in the 100-meter dash in the Colonial Valley Conference Championships and sixth in the high jump at sectionals. She wasn’t content with that and found a way to push herself further following the end of her first high school year.
“Training during the summer and going to Junior Olympics and also doing hurdles there and just feeling out the environment and knowing that it’s obviously different from New Jersey, knowing that I can perform there and get to that level,” she said.
When she came back this year, she quickly showed her improvement. After a season of cross country in the fall just to work on her fitness and strength, she showed solid development in the winter track and field season.
“The indoor season was definitely a springboard for her outdoor season this year,” the elder Johnson said. “Just her gaining the confidence and understanding that she was capable of running with some of the top athletes in the state. For our section, for indoors, we have Pennsauken in our section. They have some really good athletes in Pennsauken, so facing those young ladies and then having to face Winslow and Jasmine Jackson and those young ladies come states and everything really just helped boost her confidence and show her that she was capable of running with the top athletes in the state and the country.”
Johnson showed a new gear indoors. She clocked a new personal-record 8.35 seconds to place second at sectionals indoors, took third in groups and advanced to the indoor MOC. She even went a step beyond that by competing in indoor nationals in the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles.
“New Balance Nationals, it really helped me because it was obviously the top of the top,” Johnson said. “And I was in a heat with, I think it was a U.S. No. 3 or U.S. No. 1 at the time. And so being next to her, it was just like, I got this, I can do this. And then setting myself up for the chance.”
Johnson’s rise indoors was a plus for the Blue Devils girls team, which also is on the rise. Johnson won the 55-meter dash and 55-meter hurdles and was named CVC Girls Winter MVP after helping Ewing win its first-ever CVC team title. Leah Daniels, Faith Settles, Zoey DeSouza, Jayla Little, Victoria Seaton and Karis Crossland all scored significantly.
“Indoors, it’s more so your high-level athletes, where outdoors is more so your depth,” Coach Johnson said. “And we were able to compete at a high level indoors and take counties. However, if you look at the rankings and everything for outdoors, we weren’t as high up. But also I do count that as us just not being on our game in a sense for counties. Because then once you look at sectionals, we were leading our section up until maybe the last two events.”
Facing tough competition is pushing the Blue Devils. For Angel Johnson, that means competing against the likes of Winslow Township’s Jackson, who is in her grade and in her group. Johnson has been good at motivating herself as well. Seeing high-level athletes and competing in different demanding environments has given her valuable experience, and she’s trying to learn from each chance.
“A takeaway that I can strongly say is my mental toughness. I can improve on that for next year, which plays a huge part in how I race and different stuff like that and how I compete, of course,” Johnson said. “If I don’t have that mental toughness or readiness, then I already psych myself out before a race and, of course, that race might be bad.”
Johnson has been stockpiling a lot more good races than bad, particularly as she gets older. This year, she won the hurdles at sectionals, won the high jump with a personal best of 5 feet and took third in the 100 at sectionals to advance to groups in all three events. She’s gotten better at being able to handle the ups and downs of competing. Her father could see a difference in her this year.
“Just the attention to detail,” he said. “For the most part, understanding what she needs to do, her recognizing when she might have an off day with hurdles or whatever the case is, or might have an off hurdle rep, and understanding what she needs to do in order to change that instead of me just hovering over and telling her what she needs to do.”
She’s doing that while still showcasing her versatility and athleticism by competing in a variety of events. She’s not just hurdling or sprinting. She also continues to regularly place in the high jump.
“I don’t just love hurdles,” Johnson said. “Of course, that’s my top, but I really do like high jump and everything like that, although I may have bad days and stuff like that. But honestly, I really do like those and want to continue those to help me get better at, of course, my favorite, which is hurdles.”
It was hurdles that took her to the Meet of Champions for the outdoor season for the first time. She placed 22nd in preliminaries there but won’t forget her first experience.
“To go to Meet of Champs, it was actually really fun for me,” Johnson said. “Of course, it was difficult getting there originally, but once I got to Meet of Champs, it was like I had a good time. And obviously, I didn’t run the time that I wanted to, but everything happens for a reason.”
She is anxious to work toward getting back and being prepared to perform even better in the spotlight. With just two seniors graduating, Ewing will be a favorite again in the CVC indoor season, and as long as Johnson is in the mix, the Blue Devils can count on some big points from her events. This year, she took another step forward in her big building project, and there are still two more years to go.
“I feel like I’m not quite there yet,” Johnson said. “Of course, I’m getting better.”
