Kim Johnson could have written the script for last weekend's Ivy League Track and Field Championships.

In a situation that has become second nature to the senior Co-captain in her four years at Harvard, Johnson stood outside the cage, watching the other finalists throw in the shot put competition--grinning easily, commenting occasionally, and gently shaking her arms in preparation for her turn.

Three times the 5' 10" brunette stepped into the circle and took a deep breath. Then three times she crouched low, cradling the 8 lb. 13 oz. lead ball in her right hand on her shoulder and unhesitatingly whirling through the circle, lofting the shot further than everyone else.

When the event was over Johnson was hailed as the clear winner--with a new meet record to hoot.

"How's you do?" a teammate asked her a few minutes later in the bleachers.

"Lousy," Johnson answered with a laugh, "But I won."

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Throwing and winning is nothing new to Kim Johnson, who has rarely tasted defeat in the eight years she has been throwing the discuss and putting the shot. In fact, even her entry into the decidedly unglamorous world of field events was a success of sorts.

"I was originally a sprinter, long jumper and high jumper in high school, but I developed shin splints so bad I could barely walk," Johnson explains. "So I got really mad about it one day and I went back to where the shot putters were working out and I said. 'Show me how to throw his damn thing." Then I threw it and everyone's jaws dropped, so I thought I had really screwed up. But the said, 'No, Kim--no one has ever thrown it that far before!'"

Johnson naturally took the school record soon afterwards, as well as "a few MVP awards" in the nearby Cape Anne League. The Hamilton, Mass, native quickly outgrew her gym teaches, who gave Johnson books to look at when they couldn't give her anymore pointers.

Despite her natural affinity for the shot and the discuss, though, Johnson never took the field events seriously." "It was always so easy that I never put much into it," she remembers. "I just wasn't that intense--I would go to the meets because I could win. I was lucky meets because I could win. I was lucky enough to have the height, strength, quickness and coordination to beat everyone else." she says simply.

In fact, Johnson was so low-key about pursuing the field events that she did not even-go out for the track team when she first arrived at Harvard. She took a taste of Radcliffe crew ("They put me at stroke which really didn't surprise me"), then quit to pursue her love of basketball. It was only after leaving the hoop team because of its "pressure and lack of cameraderie" that Johnson went out for the tack team.

Again, not surprisingly, Johnson immediately rose to the top of the roster, out throwing everyone by at least 10 feet. Everything seemed to be working out too well--Johnson says she became "disillusioned" with Harvard life.

"I had never had to train to do well, so in a sense I was just continuing high school. I was worried that if I did start having problems. I wouldn't know what to do," she explains. "It was just too easy."

Johnson continued to pursue interests outside sports, especially in music, which she describes as a "lifelong bobby." An aficionado of the flute who picked up the trombone "when my flute got stolen, because it made more noise," Johnson even managed to make a name for herself on the Harvard Band.