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She wanted to be unique.
And by the time she was finished with her sophomore high school season, Emily Johns wound up doing things nobody else at Lake-Lehman had done before.
Johns twirled and hurled her way two new school records this season — in the discus and shot put throws — while winning the District 2 Class 3A gold medal in both events.
But it wasn’t simply a record-setting season that made Johns a golden girl and the Times Leader’s 2015 girls track and field athlete of the year.
Her dominance in the field events gave her Lake-Lehman teammates a confidence that kept the 6-1 Black Knights unbeaten and in the race for a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 title until the final day of the regular season.
Because Johns didn’t lose a league or district meet all year.
“She definitely helped our girls team to almost win a division title,” said Lake-Lehman coach John Sobocinski, whose team was bumped from the top spot by division champ Wyoming Area in the final WVC meet. “I hate to say it, because as a coach you’re trying to watch all 18 events, but you almost take it for granted — where you know you’re going to get those team points from Emily.
“It’s nice.”
It was an enjoyable ride for Johns from start to finish.
The daughter of David and Marie Shon-Johns opened the year by breaking the Lake-Lehman shot put record of 39 feet, 6 inches by letting loose a throw of 40 feet in her first attempt of the season. Then Johns broke that mark a couple throws later in the same meet – setting a new Lehman standard of 42-7.75.
“My season went better than I expected,” Johns said. “It went very well.”
Who could have expected she’d break two records and secure the farthest distance in the state?
That’s exactly what happened when Johns unleashed a District 2-winning discus throw of 148-06 to not only flatten the field, but set a Lehman record in that event.
That mark stood as the top discus throw of anyone in the state this season, even as Johns fell from her top seed in the event to a fourth-place PIAA medal in discus – the first state track and field medal of her high school career which is just taking off.
“I enjoy both,” Johns said of her record-setting events. “Right now, I’m having a better time in the discus.”
It’s the type of joy Johns sought when she first became interested in the sport of track and field as a grade school girl watching her sister Marie, a who competes in running events for Lehman.
“I was interested in it when my sister was in 7th grade and I was in 6th grade,” Johns said. “I decided to participate in it, but I didn’t want to be a runner. With the way my body is built, I knew I was probably going to do well in the throwing events.”
She made sure of it.
Johns puts herself through constant training in the sport, and competes all year long while entering indoor and outdoor competitions as an unattached athlete.
“All the work she puts in during the offseason just kind of starts to show for her,” Sobocinski said. “I’m not really that surprised. I taught Emily in junior high school. We knew she had talent. You combine that with the work ethic that she has, and this is what you get.”