Robert Johnson enters his sixth year as an assistant coach with the men’s cross country and track and field teams. Johnson, who works with the middle distance and distance runners, is establishing a new era of success at Cornell and has turned the Big Red into a player on the national scene.
In just five years at Cornell, Johnson has already coached athletes to no less than 12 school records and a staggering 46 top 10 all-time Cornell performances, including five of the top six in both the indoor 800 and 4x800, three of the top five in the 1,500 meters and mile, and four of the top 10 in the steeplechase. Johnson guided Bruce Hyde, a 4:20 high school miler, to a 4:00 equivalent and fourth-place showing at the 2004 USA Indoor Meet. Hyde followed that up with the Ivy League and NCAA regional titles in cross country before earning All-America honors at NCAAs. Johnson has also led Jimmy Wyner to school records in the 800 (1:48.64) and 1K (2:24.58). In 2007, Johnson led Wyner to an Olympic Trials B standard performance in the 1,500 (3:42.80) and Sage Canaday became the only collegiate athlete to qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials with a marathon mark – his 2:21:43 being a new school record. Sophomore Zac Hine was the conference runner-up in the 10k and ran the school’s #3 all-time 5k mark as Aaron Arlinghaus won the Ivy title in the steeplechase.
In the distance relays, the 4x800 team had the nation’s No. 1 indoor time in 2005 and 2006 and won 5 straight Eastern (IC4A) titles. In the distance medley relay, the squad broke the Ivy League record indoors before grabbing third at the Penn Relays with a school record 9:33 clocking in 2005. That year the squad’s 4xmile team also broke the school record and won a gold watch at Penn Relays.
Prior to coming to Cornell, Johnson coached a number of accomplished individuals, including a competitor at the USATF nationals and several high school state champions. A competitive runner himself, Johnson just missed qualifying for the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials in the marathon, when he posted a 2:23 personal best. Johnson came to Cornell from the high-altitude environment of Flagstaff, Ariz where he served as the training partner for his identical twin brother Weldon, who was 4th in the US in the 10k in 2001 and 2003 and sports a 28:06 personal best.
In 2000, Johnson co-founded the running web site LetsRun.com with his twin brother and has seen it grow to become one of the world’s most popular running web sites. An accomplished writer, Johnson has covered the NCAA track and field championships for The Washington Post and was a regular columnist for the Road Runner Club of America’s Footnotes magazine.
Johnson understands the unique challenges needed to succeed in the Ivy League as he is a 1996 cum laude graduate of Princeton University, where he earned his bachelor of arts degree in economics. This knowledge, coupled with his enthusiasm and his progressive, periodized training philosophy that stresses aerobic development has taken the Cornell middle distance and distance program to new heights.
A native of Dallas, Texas, Johnson single and lives in Ithaca.
