The Streetsboro Rockets’ track team will be well-represented in both the boys and girls’ events at the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II state meet this week. Sophomore hurdler Olivia Johnson-Wilson earned her first career state berth when she finished in fourth place in the 300-meter hurdles, clocking a personal and school record time of 45.43 seconds last Saturday at Austintown-Fitch High School’s Austintown Greenwood Stadium in Youngstown.
“We knew coming in that she was very talented and we had high expectations of getting her to the regional meet,” said Coach Robert Kidd. “Our goal was to get her to the regional finals and then to see what she could do. She ran that time and it was not a clean race, she can only elevate and go forward so she had a phenomenal day.”
Johnson-Wilson becomes the first Streetsboro female hurdler to qualify for the state meet since Destiny King and Payton Julian each made the state meet in 2013. She will compete in the preliminary race for a finals berth at The University of Dayton’s Welcome Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
Johnson-Wilson entered the regional meet having qualified in both the 100-meter and the 300-meter hurdles. She advanced to the finals in both races on Thursday but fell short of advancing to the state meet in the 100-meter hurdles by placing seventh with a personal record 15.55 seconds on Saturday.
She had to wait a little bit longer for the 300-meter hurdle race because the regional meet was paused several times due to a lightning delay.
According to the five-year coach, despite having to wait longer for her final race of the day, it actually may have been a blessing in disguise.
“That made it a little more challenging for the mental aspect and the physical prep because you are warming up and then you have to sit on the bus for 45 minutes and then you have to warm it up again and you sit on the bus,” he added. “I think it helped set that narrow vision for her on her 300-meter hurdles knowing that this was her last shot and she went out and took it.”
Kidd acknowledged that Johnson-Wilson’s form was not the best in the 300-meter hurdles as she struggled to cleanly clear a few of the hurdles, but she still finished with a personal and school record, surpassing the previous one set by Julian in 2013.
By setting the new school record despite not having the best form, Kidd said that it bodes very well for Johnson-Wilson as she advances to the Division II state meet.
“We will use that as motivation an and use that to reset and re-establish our goals for her and we are just trying to get to Saturday,” he said. “We want to make sure that we can get to Saturday and then we will try and qualify for the podium.”
Kidd said that Johnson-Wilson has been splitting her time between track and AAU basketball during the spring season but once the AAU basketball season ended right when the track postseason started, Johnson-Wilson became a different athlete.
“I just saw a focus and the ability to put more attention into things and I think our hurdling coaches have really been able to give her confidence and comfort of just the small little technical things,” he noted.
With one more week left in the track season, the Rockets’ sophomore will attempt to cap off her already historic season by leaving a memorable impression at the state meet.
“It’s going to be a race,” Kidd said. “We are walking into meets that are loaded with state talent and you have to understand so we represent that caliber and we represent those types of kids and we are just as elite and talented as any other program out there and our kids have to buy into that.”
