The fastest 400-meter sprinter in North Farmington history just started running the event

Jordan Johnson had just crossed the finish line during the Oakland County Championship at Clarkston. 

The North Farmington sprinter was bent over with both hands on his knees. The 400-meter dash had absolutely kicked his butt, and he was struggling to catch his breath. 

He had just placed seventh in the event with a ho-hum time of 52.70 seconds. 

And then he couldn't believe it when the words left his mouth. 

"I hate to admit it," Johnson said to coach Stephen Gallero. "But I think this is my race." 

That was just over a year ago. 

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Johnson grew up as a sprinter in the truest sense. You know, the 100- and 200-meter sprints. Yeah, the 400 is a sprint, too, but no one ever asks a starting running back what their 400 time is. They want to know their 100 time. 

But back then, during Johnson's junior season, he just wasn't cutting it in the shorter sprints. 

He needed to change it up. So he did. 

"My coach, Coach Gallero, always said the 400 makes you stronger," Johnson recalled. "So he tried to push a bunch of us kids to do the 400. And my teammate, Josh Rioux, wanted me to do it with him, too, since he was our only 400 runner back then. And it's painful, man." 

Over the course of the season, he cut almost 3 full seconds off his time. It was about 1 second per week since he picked up the event. 

And that, right there, was enough to inspire his off-season training. So much so, in fact, that he made track and field his only pursuit leading into his senior year. 

He trained at the track. He attended AAU meets and open races.

When the winter rolled around, he kept busy competing at indoor meets around Michigan. 

"In the past, I would run only around the high school season and then just take the rest of the year off and come back whenever the season returned," he admitted. "I realized because I was getting good at the 400 that I needed to keep going. I wanted to make sure I didn't fall off. I really pushed myself because I wanted to be good at this." 

Johnson, who is signed with Lawrence Tech University's track team, wound up running a personal best of 50.70 seconds during the summer season. Yeah, a full 2 seconds off his seventh-place effort at the Oakland County meet. 

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When his senior season started the past spring, he was ready to blow away his times even more. 

And then it just didn't happen. 

He placed first during his first three meets at the end of April and early May. And, yeah, his times were faster than they were a spring ago. But they weren't true PRs. He had run a 50.70 during the AAU circuit. And times of 50.72, 52.43 and 51.07 almost completely tanked Johnson's confidence. 

"I thought I had plateaued," he said. "Since I ran a 50.70 a summer ago, I should've been doing better than that, so I was just confused. I felt like I had been working hard, and I just wasn't getting faster. I knew my PR should've been past 50 seconds."

Johnson's mood changed during the Oakland Activities Association Blue-Gold Championship on May 12. 

From the get-go, he thought he was off to a sluggish start in the 400, but he crossed the finish line with a time of 49.92, breaking North Farmington's school record for the fastest fully-automatic time (FAT) in the event. The true school record was set by Anthony Beal 22 years earlier, but Beal's 48.84 was hand-timed. 

"I just remember when my teammate, Josh, told me what I ran, I just yelled, 'Hell yea!" and threw myself on the ground, falling backward because I was so happy," Johnson said. "Ever since then, I've been dropping time." 

Johnson went on to PR two more times during the high school season, running 49.38 during the Oakland County Meet, which was over 3 seconds faster than his time in the 400 a year earlier, and finishing with a 49.23 in the Division 1 state championship, which was good enough for a fourth-place finish and an all-state medal. 

And then he ran an awe-inspiring 48.82 during the Midwest Meet of Champions at Indiana Wesleyan University shortly afterward.

Though he bested Beal's hand-timed 48.84, Johnson's Meet of Champions time won't be counted as an official school record because it wasn't recorded during a Michigan High School Athletic Association event. 

"I tried not to have any expectations going into that meet," Johnson said. "People were pushing me and said I would run in the 48s, and I was just like, 'Yeah, but I wasn't even sub 49 last month. And while I was running, I was thinking to myself, 'I don't even feel good right now.' During the block start, I was sluggish and my foot dragged. And then I ran a 48.

"Whenever I feel like trash before a race, or I feel like I'm not in the best shape, I tend to PR. This has been a trend over my last five or so races. When I don't feel good and think I'm not going to run that good, or I feel like trash right now, that usually means I'm about to PR."

But, ever since last year's County meet, Johnson has gotten used to admitting when things turn out better for him than he expects. 

"All of this is just hard to think about right now," he added. "I didn't even realize I was a 400 runner until about halfway through the 2021 season when I was a junior. And I thought I had plateaued at the beginning of this season. And now I'm a 48 runner now."

Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on Twitter @folsombrandonj.