Cal 400-Meter Star Johnny B. Goode Climbing the Charts

Baseball players have walk-up songs that play as they approach the batter’s box. If Cal’s newest 400-meter track and field specialist had a tune to trumpet his race, it would be Chuck Berry’s 1950s classic rocker, “Johnny B. Goode.”

“Go, go, go Johnny go,” the lyrics shout out.

“I’ve heard that song a million times, ever since I can remember,” said Cal junior Johnny Brian Goode.

Yep, he’s Johnny B. Goode.

Chuck Berry performing in 1999 | Thomas P. Costello-Imagn Images

The song, written and performed by Berry, an inaugural member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once was ranked as the No. 7 song of all-timei by Rolling Stone magazine. It has been covered by the likes of Buck Owens, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead.

“I’ve got some cool parents,” Goode said.

Goode, who grew up in San Mateo, has burst onto the scene in his first season with the Bears. In just his third collegiate meet, Feb. 1 at the New Mexico Team Open, Goode broke Cal’s indoor record in the 400 with a clocking of 45.96 seconds.

Goode and the Golden Bears will compete Saturday through Monday at the Atlantic Coast Conference indoor championships at Louisville, Kentucky. He is the top seed in a 400 field, where the competition includes five other runners who have clocked 46.55 or better.

Cal senior Isaiah Shaw, who ran the program’s second-fastest outdoor time of 45.51 last season, has an indoor best this year of 46.82.

Winning in Monday’s final would be a remarkable achievement for Goode, but it’s not his primary objective this weekend.

“My biggest goal is to get a national qualifying time,” he said.

Qualifying for the NCAA indoor nationals, which will be held March 14-15 at Virginia Beach, Virginia, is based strictly on times. The top 16 in the national rankings will compete in the national semifinals, with the field cut in half for the championship race.

“It’s the hardest meet to get to because they only take the top 16 out of the country,” Cal sprints coach Ronnye Harrison said.

Because Goode’s time was recorded at Albuquerque’s mile-high altitude of 5,312 feet, the NCAA adjusts his mark to 46.07, which ranks him 23rd on the collegiate list. The 16th-fastest time is currently 45.92, and that figures to get faster after conference meets across the country this weekend.

Goode and Harrison both expect he’ll have to run somewhere around 45.6 to make the cut, and Goode is optimistic about his prospects.

“The good news is there’s a lot of competition. We’ve been training really hard and I’m expecting a PR.”

The competition is welcome, Harrison said, because Goode runs better when challenged.

“The one thing I’m seeing consistently with Johnny is he is what coaches call a dog. A dog wants to race all the time and the higher the level of competition the higher they step up,” Harrison said. “If he’s not in first place, he’s always going after someone.

“His hardest races are usually if he’s winning because he gets lost in space and time. That’s experience. If he gets competition, he can roll. My mantra is `Neva Give Up,’ and he is he epitome of that.”

Goode landed at Cal after running the 2022 and ’23 seasons at College of San Mateo, where his fastest time was 48-flat. He’d never broken 51 seconds in high school.

Goode hoped to run at a four-year after CSM but got little interest. So he attended classes at San Jose State last year and did not compete for the Spartans’ track team. Instead, he ran in meets unattached, including the Cal Opener last spring, where he clocked 47.54 to finish second behind Shaw in 47.50.

Weeks later, at Cal’s Brutus Hamilton Invitational, Goode flipped the script, running 47.07 to Shaw’s 47.08.

Both days, Goode approached Harrison to express his interest in running for the Bears. Not even a year later, Goode is breaking records at Cal, including in the indoor 200 (21.06) and as part of the 4x400 relay (3:12.69).

The outdoor season begins in earnest the third week of March and Goode said he and Shaw both have designs on Cal’s 400 record of 45.46, set by Peter Howard way back in 1985.

“That’s gone,” predicted Harrison, who expects both runners to eclipse the 40-year program standard. “They’re going to be flirting with 44.90.”

“We’re both coming for that. I think no matter what, it’s going to be broken,” Goode said. “I think I could go high-44.”

If that happens, it may be time to change his name to Johnny B. Great.

CAL'S TOP ENTRIES AT THE ACC INDOORS: Five Golden Bears are top-seeded in their events this weekend in Louisville. Besides Goode, Cal's top entries are:

— Senior David Foster: 60 meters (6.54 seconds - tied for 6th in NCAA)

— Junior Tyler Burns: Pole vault (5.62m - 18-5 1/4 - tied for the ACC lead, tied for 4th in NCAA)

— Junior Jason Plumb: Long jump (7.69m - 25-2 3/4 - 27th in NCAA)

— Sophomore Giovanna Meeks: Weight throw (23.55m - 77-3 1/4 - 2nd by one-half inch in the NCAA)

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