Current Athlete(s) Of The Month: Jake And Myah Johnson
Kit Noble and David Creed •
Photography by Kit Noble
The Nantucket High School swimming program has produced high-end talent for over 20 years. There are currently six swimmers competing at the Div. 1 level including Tyler Roethke (UMass Amherst), Grant Beebe (UMass Amherst), Emma Davis (Sacred Heart University), Emily Dussault (Merrimack College), and Sam Wisentaner (Monmouth).
While their Whaler swim careers are in the past, more talent is developing in the program – in particularly the brother/sister duo of junior Jake Johnson and sophomore Myah Johnson.
"I feel like swimming so close to Myah has almost allowed us to give each other 1-on-1 feedback when we noticed it was needed," Jake Johnson said.
"Like anyone on the team, Jake is a great competitor and as a captain Jake sets a great example by pushing himself and everyone else including me to achieve their best," Myah Johnson said.
Jake Johnson shined at the MIAA Div. 2 state meet late last month – securing a pair of top five finishes in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle events.
Johnson’s 50 free time of 21.73 earned him a fourth-place finish and he was just two tenths of a second behind the winner. Johnson also excelled in the 100 free – breaking the 48 second mark with a time of 47.96 seconds, which also earned him a fourth-place finish.
Both of Johnson’s swims were good enough for the third fastest in school history according to former Nantucket swim coach Jim Pignato, who has a chart of the fastest recorded swims in each event by Whaler swimmers over the years.
The record for a Nantucket swimmer in the 50 free is 21.61. It was set by Roethke, the most explosive swimmer in school history. Beebe holds the second fastest time by a Nantucket swimmer in the event (21.68).
As for the 100 free, Roethke also holds the record in that event by a Whaler swimmer with an incredible time of 45.80 seconds. Beebe has the second fastest swim with a time of 47.79. Johnson will try to chase both of them down next winter during his senior season. Johnson also placed behind three seniors in both events – making him the logical favorite to win both swims next year on his current trajectory.
As for Myah, she continues to show her promise and competed in a pair of state meet events last month as well. In particularly, Johnson competed in the 50-yard freestyle and swam the event in 25.20 seconds – which earned her a 10th place finish out of 31 swimmers. Last year as a freshman, she swam a 25.21 and placed 7th out of 25 swimmers.
Johnson also competed in the 100-yard freestyle and swam the event in 58.35 – which earned her a 25th place finish. This will be a time Johnson works to improve in the next two years after swimming the event in 56.77 last year and 57.11 earlier this year.
Johnson also helped the Whaler’s 200-yard medley relay team featuring Sara Dussault, Hannah Gerardi, Martina Savova, and Johnson earn a 5th place finish out of 15 relay teams in the state meet after swimming it in 1:55.72.
The Nantucket Current runs a series where we highlight an athlete on the island once per month – sometimes when under unique circumstances such as the Johnson’s case, we will feature more than one.
This player doesn’t always need to be the superstar or flashy athlete. It can be someone whose greatest contributions come when no one else is looking or be someone whose impact is substantial during the game but wildly under-appreciated by the common spectator.
The Johnson’s continue to be stars in the pool, but also off of it as leaders for their respective teams.
