ShareThisBy JOHN SCHUMACHER
Sacramento Bee
Friday, May 25, 2007
Alysia Johnson loves to perform. The Cal theater and performance studies major hasn't landed any roles yet, though, primarily because her running ability tends to leave her weekends pretty well booked.
So she works behind the scenes, her latest stint coming as a costume designer on a dance project. Working on stage will have to wait, unless you count her upcoming track performances.
The Bears junior draws top billing for the women's 800-meter race in the NCAA West Regionals on Friday and Saturday in Eugene, Ore. And right now, she's the top name on the marquee in her event for the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, set for June 6-9 at Sacramento State's Hornet Stadium.
"I feel like I have this kind of little fire inside of me that wants to perform, to push myself to be the best, and entertain," said Johnson, whose school-record 2-minute, 1.48-second effort in April is the fastest time by a college woman this season.
"Competing is a performance. There's a lot that goes into this. It's the same thing I feel for theater."
Johnson, an avid painter and outdoors enthusiast, said she would love to act or dance on stage. If that doesn't happen, she said she'd like to "be a part of it" _ set design, costume design, playwriting or directing.
"Theater has so much to offer," she said.
And for Johnson, so does track. Her steady improvement _ 2:05:49 as a freshman, 2:03.04 in a third-place NCAA finish last season and an NCAA Indoor title earlier this year in 2:03.47 _ suggests she's headed for something special. If she can run under 2 minutes, she'll be a serious threat to make the 2008 U.S. Olympic team.
Her success is a product of three years of good training, but Johnson and her coach don't want to look too far down the track.
"I just want to let these days unfold as they come," said Johnson, from Canyon Country. "I've got goals, but I'd like to keep them to myself."
Tony Sandoval, Cal's associate director of track and field, said Johnson has a lot of work left to land a role on the Olympic stage.
"She has to demonstrate continued progress," Sandoval said. "(A time of) 2:01.48 would get her maybe into the final of the Olympic Trials. There are probably a half dozen women who have run under 2 minutes. She certainly has to continue to improve if we're going to talk about that."
An NCAA outdoor title seems within reach, although Johnson will have to earn it. Defending champion Rebekah Noble of Oregon ran 2:02.07 last year as a freshman.
"There's some very, very good runners," Sandoval said. "What Rebekah Noble did last year was phenomenal. I would not assume anything with her.
"She (Johnson) certainly is in position for a title."
Johnson, who ran 2:01.74 to beat Noble and win the Pacific-10 championship earlier this month, said winning the indoor title served as a breakthrough for her.
"I realized the only way I'm going to be able to be successful for myself is if I run my own race," she said. "I just keep my own plan, not focus on anybody else or run off of anybody else.
"I gained a lot more confidence in my own race strategy, my own race plan."
Johnson, 21, said guidance from a fellow Canyon High School alum _ former Stanford distance star Lauren Fleshman, who won her third consecutive NCAA 5,000-meter title in 2003 at Hornet Stadium _ has helped prepare her for top-level competition.
"I'd say she's a mentor of mine," Johnson said. "She helped me with the whole process of choosing a school. It was a very stressful time. When I first started competing in more national-type races, she's been really good helping me."
Johnson would like nothing more than to add an outdoor title to the indoor one already on her resume.
"It would be a nice icing on the cake for a wonderful season," she said. "To come away with a championship would be more than amazing.
"Winning the indoor nationals was a ridiculous feeling. ... To do it twice in one season, I'd imagine it would be unexplainable."
