Johnson Takes Bigger Bite of Record Book

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Prior to Friday's finals session, Christopher Woodard and Anika Johnson had a difference of opinion.

The heart of the issue was the Colorado State women's swimming and diving coach was telling his sophomore, who was about to swim a pair of events at the Mountain West Championships at the Texas A&M Natatorium, to be a Big Dog. Johnson informed him she wasn't one yet.

By the time she was done barking at the end of the evening, she could no longer deny what her coach already knew, and what the rest of the conference is realizing – her bite can draw blood.

"I suppose I'm a big dog now," Johnson said after placing fourth in the 200-yard freestyle, her 1:48.28 the second-best time in school history.

Finally, she's come to know what others have seen for some time.

"For sure. One hundred percent," said CSU's resident lead dog, senior Kristina Friedrichs. "I think she had it in her, but I think it just takes that progression of you don't really know what's going to happen freshman year; you're scared, you're nervous, but I saw it in her. I knew it was coming, it was just a matter of time.

"It takes a while. It's hard, especially if you're not someone who is typically overconfident about things to recognize when you're taking those steps and becoming one of those leaders."

Johnson, who also teamed with Friedrichs, Sarah Mundy and Megan Hager to take third and reach the podium in the 200 free relay to start the night (1:32.53), has been having a blast all meet. She's constantly smiling, naturally in part because she's swimming so well, but also because she's gotten a kick of out of watching her teammates swim well and others around the Mountain West throw down some impressive times.

Woodard saw scrap yard in her last year, but he wasn't about to make it a topic at the time. She had a great conference meet as a freshman, placing eighth in the 200 free, touching 13^th in the 100 free and 15^th in the 500 free. Now, he feels she's fully ready to take control of the yard. Of the eight championship finalists in the 200 free, six of them were seniors, including the three swimmers who stood higher on the awards stand than she did.

"I think honestly after last year at conference, but I wouldn't tell her that. That would be foolish of me," Woodard said. "When you start planning people's future, it can mess with their head. It was more, let's take one day at a time and keep trusting the process, and we saw it every day. She would compete with her teammates, and not in a hostile way. I have to be .10 faster than they do, because if I do that, I'll be in a position to make finals.

"She's not the type of person where her head is going to get big. She might feel like a big dog in comparison to the conference and her competitors, but I don't think she'll ever get to the point where she's a diva. That's not her style."

Not even close. Woodard is certain you can't find a teammate, a coach or any of the support staff who would say a negative word about the Minneapolis product. She's friendly, polite and well-spoken, but there is an inner fire which can't be denied. Her style is one Woodard said fans of the sport are drawn to, and that's her ability to chase people down at the end of a race.

"She's always been a pretty solid closer. This meet is putting her on a whole other level in terms of the way she closes," he said. "I think everyone respects a closer. It's maybe easier to go out and try to hang on, but it always hits an emotional impact for people when they see someone push the pace at the end and out-touch some people."

Thursday, she improved her place in the 500 free, placing 11^th with a program top-10 time, and Saturday, she'll finish out with the 100. Her first individual race and the 4:54.07 gave her a jolt of confidence for good reason. Her final 100 split was the second fastest of her race, starting with a 56.44 and finishing with a 57.43.

She was just as good Friday, going out in 53.07 and coming back in 55.41, faster than all but the top two placers.

"I think taking it out with the 500 on the first day helped me gain a little bit of confidence for today, just knowing I could swim fast if I put my mind to it," she said. "The 200 is always like a big mental game for me, so I think having the 500 yesterday to kick things off helped. I put a lot of pressure on myself. It's always been my best event, and people have expectations for me and I have expectations for myself I want to live up to."

Friedrichs understands as much as anybody. She held the second-best time in the event for all of two days, having set it by leading off the 800 freestyle relay on Wednesday. It was a spot she already held, she just lowered the time, making it hard for Johnson, who is now only the third Ram to dip under 1:49 in the event. When the meet started, Mundy ranked third, Johnson fourth. Mundy, who placed ninth, lowered her personal best with a 1:49.53. Hager gave the Rams a trio of scorers in the event, going 1:52.05 to place 21^st.

But this season, Friedrichs has put the 200 free to the side and focused on the 100 butterfly, adding some spice to her normal freestyle routine – she ranks second at CSU in the 50 free, third in the 100 free. Now, she also ranks second in the 100 butterfly, placing fourth in the event in a time of 53.64 after swimming a 53.69 in the preliminaries.

"I think it's been a lot of fun. It's such a different experience getting to watch the 200 freestylers, because I've spent so much time training with Megan, Sarah and Anika," Friedrichs said. "I've always been in the thick of it with them. I've never gotten to cheer them on and look at it from the outside in. It's a different experience. I love it so much.

"I like the different view point of training fly and what that's given me. I think the 200 free has always been a mental game for me. In high school, I popped a time I wasn't expecting and I wasn't willing to accept that my 200 free had gotten better than my 50. The first two years of college, it was just mentally a taxing event for me to swim at meets. I've come to love it in that sense of how you love a little brother. It's been fun to mix it up and try something new and train something new."

The 400 individual medley brought more points for the team, as Maisy Barbosa, Maya White and Abbey Owenby followed each other to the wall, with Barbosa 10^th, Owenby 12^th and White in between. An event later, Amanda Hoffman was 23^rd in the first heat of the 100 butterfly.

After the 200 free crew, the Rams had three scorers in the 100 breaststroke, led by Emma Breslin in 16^th. Kate Meunier and Katie McClelland placed 21^st and 22^nd, respectively. The final race of the night, the 100 back, saw Liza Lunina place 13^th.

Heading into the final day, Colorado State sits fifth with 488 points and feeling like they are building toward a strong finish.

"I think as a team in the morning, we're always so good about rallying around each other," Friedrichs said. "In the prelims, I think it's easy for people to get lost in the heats and worry about themselves, but I think this morning we brought the energy and made sure there was a crew of people cheering for every single person in the pool, and I think that made a difference. It showed in the amount of finals swims we had tonight."

Saturday's final day of competition begins at 10 a.m. (MT) with the swimming preliminaries for the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke and the 200 butterfly. Platform diving preliminaries are set for 11:30 a.m., followed immediately by the consolation finals. At 2:50 p.m., the first three heats of the 1,650 free will be held. The finals for all swimming and diving events, including the final heat of the 1,650 free (which includes three CSU swimmers) and the 400 free relay are set to start at 5:30 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

Maisy Barbosa

Emma Breslin

Katie Flynn

Kristina Friedrichs

Megan Hager

Amanda Hoffman

Anika Johnson

Liza Lunina

Kate Meunier

Sarah Mundy

Abbey Owenby

Maya White