The older sister minces her way over 5,000 meters of cross country terrain. The younger sister swallows meters at a time over 800 meters of track. With disparate stride and strength, each Johnson sister nevertheless lit up her respective West Seattle High School team during her team's most recent season.

Kylen Johnson, a senior, was the school's acknowledged cross country star last fall. After toiling the three previous fall sports seasons on the junior varsity soccer team, Kylen switched sports and found immediate success as a long-distance runner. In five regular season meets, she raced to two firsts, two seconds, and a third. By virtue of her performance in the Metro League championship meet, Kylen then became the only West Seattle High School runner, girl or boy, to advance to the SeaKing District meet.

Older sister, however, is no longer faster than "little" sister. Few are. In the speed department last spring, then-freshman, April, showed West Seattle High School's colors where they are seldom seen - on the podium for fifth place at the state track meet in Pasco. As with Kylen, April's success was attributable to a switch, from the 400 meter, one-lap sprint, to the 800 meter middle distance. The transition was abrupt. One meet day, late in the season, Coach Tom Burggraff, without warning, announced to April, "You're running the 800."

April, in a panic, ran to Kylen: "I don't know if I can!"

Coach Burggraff, with a calculating eye on the rest of the league, had noted that as fast as April was at 400 m, the field was saturated. April's postseason prospects would be better if she went long. April proceeded to validate her coach's hunch: she won the 800 meter that day; she finished third at the Metro League championships; then concluded her season with a heartbreaking, non-qualifying, fifth place at the district meet - or so she thought.

Exhausted, April had gone home soon after her race, letting it sink in that fifth place failed to advance her to the state meet. Kylen stayed in the stadium to watch more of the track meet, then heard the announced results of the 800 meter run: her sister had run so fast that her time had beaten the state meet qualifying standard. April was going to state irrespective of her fifth place finish. Kylen called home.

April, still emotionally drained, had been home only a matter of minutes when Kylen's call came in. When she heard Kylen's news, she did what any exhausted, emotionally depleted athlete would do - she started crying tears of joy. The rest is history. April was "frozen scared" at state and was very glad to be able to qualify for the 800 meter finals in the first heat rather than in the second.

This spring finds both sisters actually running on the same track team, but they have teamed up before, in a different endeavor, as volunteers at "The Mount," Providence-Mount St Vincent. Together, they have racked up substantial community service hours toward high school graduation. Together, they have experienced residents "who are not doing well" and proximity to those who make the ultimate switch of venue. They have also made some incredible friends in what has become, unexpectedly, an "experience of a lifetime."

Competing for Kylen's time during this track season is her senior project-in-progress. She is investigating the controversial practice of graphology, or handwriting analysis to assess personality traits. It is a science, or pseudoscience, that has gained less legitimacy in the United States than in other countries. Its detractors grant it no more credibility than they give to horoscopes. The subject piqued Kylen's interest because of her general interest in psychology.

Back on the track, you may see the Johnson sisters race close to home at the Southwest Athletic Complex on Thursday, May 3, and hopefully in the postseason the very next week.

John Leonard may be reached via wsedtor@robinsonnews.com