Emily Johns attracted the attention of college track and field recruiters with her abilities in the discus and high school’s other throwing events.

When she arrives at Harvard University in the fall, the Lake-Lehman senior will be anxious to learn what she can do in a new event.

“I tend to favor discus,” Johns said of the event in which she finished fourth in the state in Class AAA as a sophomore in 2015, “but I’m definitely looking forward to hammer.”

The hammer throw is a college event not conducted on the high school level.

“I’ve played with it a little bit, but nothing like competing or very serious with it yet,” Johns said. “The coach at Harvard is very good with the hammer, so I’m looking forward to learning from her.”

Johns committed to the Ivy League school in October and signed her National Letter of Intent Nov. 9, the first day of the eight-day fall signing period to formalize to commitments to National Collegiate Athletic Association schools.

Taylor Alba, headed to Temple University for field hockey, also signed that day.

Other field hockey players, Sarah Sabaluski (Louisville) and Lilli Stepanski (St. Francis of Pennsylvania) took care of their signings later in the time period.

Johns, who took up the throwing events when she joined junior high track as a seventh grader, made an immediate impact on the high school level as a freshman, qualifying for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state championships in all three throwing events. She is a two-time District 2 gold medalist in both the shot put and the discus and made it to the state level in the javelin while finishing second in Class AA in 2014.

Last spring, Johns started out as one of the state’s top throwers, but missed the championship events with a partially torn ligament in her foot that kept her away from training for the sport until the fall.

Johns chose Harvard after also considering Princeton.

“I really liked where Harvard is located,” Johns said. “I love the program. I’m interested in doing biomedical engineering and they have such a great program and research options there.

“And, I got along real well with the coach and the rest of the team, so it really just clicked for me there.”

Alba and Sabaluski had announced their verbal commitments to Division I scholarships before even starting their junior seasons at Lake-Lehman.

Stepanski made up her mind later in the fall in 2015.

“I liked the coach, the campus and the school itself,” said Stepanski, who is undecided on a major at the Loretto-based school.

The chance to play on college’s highest level was the culmination of almost a decade of efforts in the sport.

Stepanski, a forward, started attended camps in the sport as a third-grader.

“Junior high is when I got more serious,” Stepanski said. “That’s when I started playing indoor in the winter season.”

Stepanski started every varsity game of her four-year high school career, playing in three state tournaments with the Black Knights.

As a senior, she was part of a team that won Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 and District 2 Class A titles and carried an unbeaten record into the state semifinals, the farthest Lake-Lehman has advanced in more than a decade.

“We finally went farther than we had gone as sophomores,” said Stepanski of a state tournament win that year.

Stepanski is remaining active in the sport in the winter while playing for the Majestyx Field Hockey Club.

Johns is getting ready for shot put competition, the only throwing event that is part of the indoor track and field season.

Johns, Alba, Sabaluski, Stepanski eye next level in respective sports

By TOM ROBINSON

For the Dallas Post

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