Johnny Crain ’14 improved steadily and turned disappointment into growth as he became one of the North Central College men’s cross country and track and field teams’ most decorated competitors.
Crain first competed at the national level as a sophomore, placing 48th overall and fifth for North Central as the Cardinals won the 2011 national cross country championship. He then earned All-America honors for the first time with a seventh-place showing in the distance medley relay at the indoor track and field championship as the team won its third straight national indoor title.
Despite high hopes for the outdoor championship, Crain faded to 16th place in the 5,000-meter run. Following the competition, Crain quickly resolved to use the experience to his advantage.
“I just had a terrible meet,” Crain said. “I wasn’t mentally prepared, I got in my own head, and I had a rough day. On the way back, I remember talking to Al (Carius (H) ’16) and Grammy (Frank Gramarosso) about what happened, and I committed to them, ‘This will never happen again.’ I was willing to do whatever it took, because that feeling of not giving my best hurt so much more than any pain you could feel in a race.”
In 2012, Crain claimed All-America honors in cross country with a sixth-place finish as he led the Cardinals to a second straight national crown. He staged a bid for an individual national title in the indoor 5,000-meters as North Central hosted the event for the first time, but was overtaken in the final lap and crossed the finish line second. Crain experienced a similar fate in the 10,000-meter run at the outdoor championship, placing a close second again after leading early. He regrouped two days later and moved up through the field to take the lead near the end of the 5,000-meter run and climb the podium as an individual champion for the first time.
“With indoor nationals at North Central, it meant a lot to me to do whatever I could to defend home turf, so to speak,” Crain recalled. “Coming up short like that really stung, but it showed me I was capable of a winning a title. I knew I was doing good things and on the verge of doing some great things…but it was something I really had to work on and commit to.”
Crain was a regional champion and national runner-up as an individual in cross country as a senior, then became the first NCAA Division III runner to win the 3,000- and 5,000-meter events at the same indoor national meet with times that ranked second in North Central and Division III history in both races. Crain’s time of 14:06.73 in the 5,000 still sits 17th all-time nationally while his 8:10.40 effort in the 3,000 ranks 23rd. He opened the 2014 outdoor season by clocking a time of 28:52.73 in the 10,000-meter run which ranked second in Division III history at the time and still sits sixth. Crain closed his career with a victory in the 10,000 and a runner-up finish in the 5,000 at the outdoor national championship, giving him four individual national titles to rank fifth in the Cardinals’ storied history.
Crain’s individual improvement fueled North Central’s competitive success, as its teams placed eighth or better at all nine national meets in which he competed and finished among the top three five times.
“That was the culture we talked about every single day,” Crain said. “Doing it for the team and not necessarily for individual awards…getting lost in that process and focusing on giving my best because my teammates were giving theirs was how I was able to achieve what I did.”
