Johnson, 4×400 relay come up just short of ending state title droughts

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Platte County senior Andrew Johnson and the Pirates’ 4×400-meter relay came agonizingly and cruelly close to ending state title droughts in the Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships.

Already the most decorated long-distance runner in program history, Johnson led the 3,200-meter race at multiple points but couldn’t hold the advantage in an exciting finish to determine the top two spots. The 4×400 with senior Connor Currence, juniors Brayden Eschliman and Josh Fraker and sophomore Jackson Goodale turned in the top qualifying time in Friday’s preliminaries but ultimately finished third in Saturday’s final.

Johnson became the first for Platte County to earn multiple state medals in Class 5 since the move up from Class 4 in 2022 and matched the best overall finish to conclude an accomplished career.

“I’m really excited. I put up a really good time (in the 3,200),” he said. “I’m glad I could end my time at Platte County on a good note.”

The best might still be ahead for the 4×400, which set a school record in the first of two races and continued staggering overall improvement over the past two postseasons.

“We’ve got an amazing group,” said Currence, who anchored the relay as a senior after missing almost the entirety of junior year due to a stress fracture in his foot. “We knew, but it hurts because we knew we could’ve done a little better. It just didn’t go our way. There’s still juniors and a sophomore so they have more comin’; some people don’t know that, but they will soon.”

Johnson reached the podium in the 3,200 for a second straight season and improved on last year’s sixth-place showing. He originally set Platte County’s school record in the event while winning the Class 5 Sectional 4 title as a junior and then lowered that mark twice as a senior.

In the last 3,200 of his career but not his final race, Johnson went to the front during the second lap, forced to the outside to clear traffic in an effort to speed the pace. He never went below third after that point but didn’t go back to first until the conclusion of the seventh out of eight laps.

Johnson went into the final 400 with a lead of a little more than a second, and that advantage held until Kirkwood senior Levi Rowan made a charge in the final 100 meters. He finished first in 9 minutes, 9.35 seconds , while Johnson set a school record at 9:09.99.

Interestingly, Rowan (Class 5) and Johnson (Class 4) both finished as state cross country runnersup this past fall in their separate races. The second-place finish in Friday’s race matched Platte County’s best in Class 5 track after Chandler Steinmeir finished as runnerup in the 300 hurdles (2022).

“I knew I was one of the top guys in this field,” said Johnson, who ran 9:18.79 at sectionals last year to erase Nathan Straubel’s previous school record from 2015 and then improved that to 9:12.80 at this year’s Bill Summa Invitational. “I kept getting boxed in, and I needed to work my way out to be in that top spot. I kind of knew in the last 100. Normally, I finish stronger than that, but my legs were just completely shot.”

Johnson nearly became the first individual state champion for Platte County’s boys since brothers Naron and Jaron Rollins combined to take three in 2012 while leading the Pirates to the Class 4 team title.

The list of superlatives in Johnson’s career include the school record for cross country plus the 3,200 and 1,600 (4:15.50) in track. He qualified for state in two events for the first time, having not advanced out of districts prior to his junior year.

In Saturday’s 1,600, Johnson pushed the pace on the first of four laps and sat in first place at one point before narrowly going to second to start the second lap. He slowly faded from there and eventually finished 15th out 16 runners at 4:25.42 — a price paid for the max exertion the day before in trying to win the 3,200.

“I kind of knew coming into today I wouldn’t be much competition because I gave it everything in that two mile,” Johnson said. “But I’m happy with the results, regardless.”

Platte County’s most recent track state title came from the 2018 4×800 relay in Class 4, but the Pirates were in contention to end that streak, as well.

In Friday’s preliminaries, Eschliman and Fraker turned in solid first two legs to put Platte County third behind Rockhurst and Rock Bridge. From there, Goodale took the baton and pushed the Pirates to first with a 49.08 split in just his fifth race of the season, limited work due to an abductor muscle injury that kept him out of action until the Suburban Conference White Division Championships.

Goodale, Fraker and Eschliman all ran on last year’s state qualifying 4×400 that struggled in preliminaries, but the returning core plus Currence’s availability created lofty expectations.

“It means the world to me,” Goodale said. “If you would’ve told me three or four weeks ago — I wasn’t even practicing — if you would’ve told we’d be here, third place in the biggest class in the state, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

Currence came across the line with an aggressive lean in what ended up a comfortable victory for Platte County at 3:17.88, breaking the school record of 3:18.92 set a week earlier in a third-place finish at Class 5 Sectional 4. Lee’s Summit won the other heat but with a slower time, giving the Pirates the top seed and Lane 4 for the final.

In Saturday’s final event, Platte County again bettered the previous week’s time, but the 3:18.20 mark ended up third. The Pirates were in fourth when Goodale, the anchor during a breakout freshman campaign, took the baton for the third leg. He moved them to third, and Currence ultimately held that spot despite some shuffling.

Lee’s Summit North ended up with the win at 3:17.76 with junior anchor Devan Mathis running a 47.67 split that took the Broncos from fifth to .01 ahead of Lee’s Summit (3:17.77). The top four teams in the state ended up coming from Sectional 4 in the same order as the previous week’s finish with Rockhurst fourth at 3:18.77.

The disappointment showed on the faces of all four Platte County runners at the finish line and into the medal ceremony despite becoming the second Class 5 state relay medalists and the best to this point (4×100, sixth in 2022).

“It’s just special,” Goodale said. “I’m just thankful. It is tough, but I’m thankful for what we got.”

Prior to last season’s Class 5 Sectional 4 meet, Platte County had never run a time in the 4×400 faster than the 2014 state team’s 3:23.95.

Eschliman, Fraker and Goodale along with Aaron Cordova, the only graduated senior from the 2023 unit, smashed that at 3:21.62, knocking 4 seconds off their previous PR. The Pirates didn’t approach that time again until conference, still without Goodale, then just missed the mark at districts before improving on the time at sectionals and state. The final race for the group also ended up as the second-fastest in program history.

Currence’s confidence stems from the return of three key pieces along with freshman Jack Johnson, who spent the majority of the season on the 4×400 and also qualified for Class 5 Sectional 4 in the 300 hurdles.

“I’m excited for next year, gotta make sure to go put in more work than we ever have. Don’t want to feel like this again,” Eschliman said.