Tim Johnson thought he was defeated when he lay on the floor at the Mountain West Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Tuesday before the meet, Colorado State track and field ran a weekly sprint drill called the fly-in 20 meters. It’s a short test of every athlete’s max speed. It was then that Johnson took some advice from a sprinter to run a little faster.

The next sprint resulted in Johnson tweaking his right quadricep.

“I ended up getting injured,” Johnson said. “They made a decision that we were still going to go. I just needed to get as much therapy and everything in and hope for the best. It really just came down to the mindset.”

“I told coach I was hurting, and she told me, ‘No you’re not. You got to keep going.'” –Tim Johnson, jumper

Neither Johnson nor jumps coach Maria Creech were sure he could perform at the championships. After being previously ranked second in the conference, the expectation was for him to finish second, if not higher. Now it was just to get a mark.

Johnson, normally a vocal leader impacting his team as an upperclassman, became a shell of who he was.

“He definitely shut down a lot that week, which is out of character for him,” Creech said. “And this was kind of an either you can or you can’t moment. And if we decide that you can, then it’s either going to be terrible or everything.”

Creech made a push for Johnson to still compete. For Creech, as long as the trainer told them it was OK for Johnson to jump, then he was going to. Thankfully for Johnson, he pulled his right quad, which meant his left would still have the power to push over the bar.

Fast forward to championship day in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Johnson was nowhere to be found. Creech scanned the track and came to the realization that Johnson had hung back with the trainer instead of working on practice marks at the high jump pit with his teammates.

“I looked to my assistant, and I was like, ‘Can you go find TJ?’” Creech said. “’And don’t come back with bad news. Don’t tell me — just don’t. I just can’t handle it right now.’ And a few minutes later, she comes running back and then he’s jogging in behind him. I’m like, ‘OK, good. At least he’s here. He’s got his spikes. It looks like he’s going to get ready to do some stuff.'”

Johnson’s first two attempts gave Creech slight confidence that he could jump for his final mark. He cleared a height of 6 feet, 5 inches, which at least meant he was getting over the bar.

However, after his second attempt, Johnson limped off the mat, went to his teammates and lay down on the ground. All the feelings of doubt resolidified in Creech’s mind as Johnson’s efforts deflated on the floor.

“Before the meet, I just looked at him and I said, ‘Hey, I just want you to do what you can today,’” Creech said. “It doesn’t matter. Just go out there, be strong and try to jump a few bars, OK?”

Even though just hitting a mark was the new expectation heading into the championships, seeing Johnson clear his first marks had Creech reconsidering his abilities for the weekend.

Filled with passion, Creech formulated a plan to get Johnson to finish his final jump.

“I almost walked over to him and leaned down to him and I was like, ‘TJ, you better get up right now,’” Creech said. “You better take this jump, and you better clear this bar. I believe in God. And TJ and I have had conversations about putting this on God, letting God take this for you.”

Creech said a prayer and started heading toward Johnson. Right at that moment, he stood up and walked to his tape mark at the pit.

Johnson then set a personal record and secured the MW high jump championship with a mark of 6 feet, 11.5 inches.

“I told coach I was hurting, and she told me, ‘No you’re not. You got to keep going,’” Johnson said. “I got back up and also remembered that my teammate (Ismael Dembele) told me I didn’t come all this way for no reason. I had to keep going for a greater purpose.”

Dembele, another upperclassmen leader, took home the triple jump championship title. At the beginning of the season, Dembele was described as a quiet leader, motivating his teammates by example.

It was the first year Creech had two jumpers secure a championship in the same weekend. Creech’s jumps crew totaled 56 of the Rams’ total points, helping to win a second consecutive men’s MW championship. All six of the male jumpers scored points.

“I always tell him, I’m like, ‘Yo, like, I don’t care how you feel,’” Dembele said. “’I always got my money on you.’ I never doubted him.”

As confident Dembele may have felt about Johnson’s performance, the injured champion left Creech in shock.

“I didn’t think he could clear it, but just with everything that had happened this week and watching him move around in the competition, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh — I didn’t know that he had it in him,’ to be honest,” Creech said.

Johnson spent his days after the championships replacing the starter motor and solenoid in an old Ford Expedition. He said his father raised him to be self-sufficient. Johnson is experienced in HVAC, fabrication, 3D-printing and other trades.

Despite knowing all those things, he is going to school for real estate. His family has knowledge of building; he soon will have the skills to sell those buildings.

Being self-sufficient is the reason Johnson performed, even amid adversity. He came from a junior college where coaching was less accessible, and most of the time, Johnson had to learn on his own.

“It was pretty much all of myself trying to get things done and trying to make it to the next level,” Johnson said. “So coming out of that first year I got here, I ended up bulging my disk. So that was a pretty big setback. Set me back a year, and then the very next year, (I was) just trying to get back into the swing of things, trying to get consistency.”

Creech joined the Rams as a volunteer coach four years ago. Her first recruiting assignment happened to be Johnson. The two instantly hit it off.

If asked, “What makes someone a good high jumper?” The first thing Johnson responds is that they have to understand the physics. Creech said she looks forward to working with Johnson because he is so knowledgeable about the movement of the jump.

“I feel very in tune with the events of high jump, and so does he,” Creech said. “So I can communicate with him in high jump language.”

Johnson said he credits where he is today to God. After the injury, he spent his time praying for strength and having faith in his abilities despite his hurt quad and bulged disk.

After Johnson cleared the bar, securing the championship, he made a spur-of-the-moment decision to hit the “too low” gesture while looking at the bar.

“The bar is too low, you know what I’m saying?” Johnson said. “The sky’s the limit for me.”

Reach Adam Gross at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @agrose_22.