HUNTINGTON, Ind. (WANE) -- Nicholas Johnson, a former Huntington University cross country coach once accused of running a doping program at the small Christian school, will spend one year behind bars on a sexual battery conviction. Thursday, Johnson was sentenced by Huntington County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Newton after his conviction on Sept. 26, following a 2-day trial. He was handed one year in prison or jail and one year of probation after that. Huntington County Prosecutor Jeremy Nix said where he will be incarcerated is up to the Indiana Department of Correction. In Indiana, sentencing on a Felony 6 charge ranges from six months to 2.5 years. Newton explained her sentencing strategy. She took into consideration the many letters of support written on Johnson's behalf, but noted that none of them acknowledged his sexual misdeeds. "It was hard for me to find any mitigating factors because he has not acknowledged he did anything wrong," Newton said. As far as a hardship for his family, since it was pointed out that he is the insurance carrier for his wife, also a former track coach at HU, and a child born this year, Newton agreed it would amount to a hardship because of incarceration but the incarceration "was of his own doing." The problem with coaches taking advantage of athletes is that they are in a position of trust, Nix said. That was one aggravating factor; the other was his conviction of identity deception in conjunction with using fake emails to communicate with a 16-year-old girl he was recruiting back in 2020. He admitted to Huntington's Detective Sgt. Shane Blair that he took the girl on a trip for several days to the Pacific Northwest while posing as an official with the University of Oregon - a trip her parents were unaware of. Blair said that Johnson and his wife decided not to talk to Huntington University about the trip "to keep their employment." However, Johnson admitted to taking that trip, which included sexual activities, to Blair. Johnson blamed his troubles with these female victims on his use of testosterone cream for his erectile dysfunction "that caused him to think about sexual things," Blair said in court testimony Thursday. After Johnson was charged with child seduction, the victim "became uncooperative" saving Johnson further legal distress on that charge. Thursday's sentencing was about his university's runners. During Johnson's trial, one of his former Huntington University athletes testified that he sexually battered her while giving her a massage at least once. The two then went on to have a consensual relationship afterward. A jury deliberated for roughly seven hours before handing down a guilty verdict last month. That victim spoke in court Thursday, describing in a very shaky and tearful voice, her relationship with Johnson. She trusted him, she said, but called the ordeal "an intolerable situation," that made her feel like "she never had a choice." The texts from him were constant, she said. To this day, four years later, she struggles with anxiety and fear. Johnson's attorneys, James Voyles and Jennifer Lukemeyer, both of Indianapolis, maintained that the letters written in support showed he was a loyal friend, father, son and husband and the letters couldn't be ignored. "Running was his life," Lukemeyer told the judge. "The vision he had with his wife was not a healthy one." Thursday marked Johnson's second felony conviction in Indiana. He pleaded guilty to identity deception in the 2020 case where he took the teenage girl to Oregon while Huntington County prosecutors dropped charges of child seduction and kidnapping levied against Johnson as part of the plea agreement. Huntington University fired Johnson shortly after those charges were filed against him in that case but elevated his wife, Lauren Johnson, to the head coach of the school's running programs. In 2022, a federal lawsuit filed by former runners against the Johnsons, Huntington University, the university's athletic director and other administrators made national headlines with accusations the Johnsons ran a doping program at the school along with sexual battery and rape allegations against Nicholas Johnson. Lauren Johnson was also terminated from the university at about the same time. Ultimately, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit on the basis none of the accusations showed the school violated Title IX - meaning the runners did not show in the lawsuit that they specifically went to university officials to let them know what was going on within the program. The judge, however, said the lawsuit could be refiled in state court - which has yet to happen. In March 2023, a Huntington County grand jury indicted Johnson on charges of felony sexual battery and a misdemeanor count of battery, but the misdemeanor county was later dismissed. Thursday, the judge also ordered that Johnson be on the sex offender registry for 10 years. The sentencing comes on the heels of the NAIA, which oversees Huntington University athletics, suspending the school's cross country programs from postseason competition this year while placing the entire university's athletics program on probation. While officials with the NAIA would not discuss what brought on the sanctions against the university, Huntington University officials later confirmed it stemmed from Johnson's time at the college.