Jordaine Johnson Blows Up Track With Historic Sprint Triple

Look out for Jordaine Johnson!!!

Johnson, who missed the entire outdoor season last spring with a broken toe, left lots of smoke at Schools Stadium on Saturday when he produced one of the greatest and electrifying sprint triples in state history at the Super Essex Conference Championships in Newark.

Johnson, a junior at East Orange Campus, started off his day by running a meet record 10.53 in the trials of the American Division 100-meter dash, No. 5 in the state this season. He followed that up by winning the 100 dash final in 10.70. 

Johnson returned to the track 15 minutes later to finish first in the 400 in 47.91, No. 2 in the state this season. Later in the day, Johnson completed the sprint trifecta with his best performance of them all when he blazed his way to a meet and Essex County record 21.04,  which is No. 8 in NJ history for all conditions (there was no wind gauge).

How rare and remarkable is Johnson's triple!!!?

I can only find three other sprinters in state history who ran under 10.55, under 21.10, and under 48.00 in their high school careers!!!

Olympic gold medalist Dennis Mitchell, a 1984 graduate of Edgewood, ran 10.47, 21.06 and 46.02. The late Mario Heslop of Franklin (Class of 2019) went 10.33, 20.74, and 46.73, and Shamali Whittle of Hamilton North (Class of 2022) had high school PR's of 10.48, 20.55, and 47.82. 

That's some fast company that Johnson joined!!

And Johnson might be the first to ever go under 10.55, under 21.10, and sub 48 on the same day!! Heslop and Whittle accomplished their times on different days. Still checking on Mitchell.

Here's some more info on Johnson's 21.04 in the 200.

Johnson's 21.04 broke the Essex County automatic time record for all conditions of 21.22 that Maxwell Booker of Essex Catholic ran when he finished second to Danny Johnson of Rahway (21.03) at the 2000 Meet of Champions at Frank Jost Field in South Plainfield. The times by Booker and Johnson were wind-aided as they were run with a tailwind  of 2.3 meters per second.

In case you're wondering, the state record in the 200 for all-conditions is a wind-aided 20.51 (2.8 meters per second) by Antonio Tarantino of Paul VI in the trials of the 2018 New Balance Nationals Championships at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, N.C. The wind-legal state record is 20.75 that Shamali Whittle ran in the trials of the 200 at the 2021 Outdoor National Championships at Hayward Field in Oregon.