Walt Johnson sets school record as Oxford wins Pontotoc XC Invitational

Published 4:10 pm Tuesday, October 15, 2019

The Oxford boys won Saturday’s Pontotoc Cross Country Invitational in dominant fashion, and the girls finished second, but the biggest news of the day came on the individuals front.

Charger senior Walt Johnson broke the Oxford all-time cross country record in the race, crushing his previous personal best with a time of 15 minutes and 20.95 seconds. A fast race from all ends, Johnson’s previous personal best was 16:02.10. He won the race by nearly an entire minute.

The previous record was set in 2014 by Tristan Orman, who went on to run at Mississippi State.

Email newsletter signup

On just about all fronts, the race was simply a fast one for the Chargers. Finishing in second place out of 207 competitors was Oxford sophomore Luke Johnson, running a 16:17.04. Another Oxford sophomore, Matthew Singletary, finished fifth in a dominant performance that saw all five scoring runners for the Chargers finish in the top 22.

And it wasn’t just the boys with fast performances on the day; Oxford’s girls finished second in the meet. Beckham McCord was the highest finishing Charger on the girls side, coming in 10th. However, the team placed each of their next five runners between 16th and 22nd in a field of 115 runners.

Lafayette’s Mia Dawson won the girls meet with a 20:08.27, and fellow Commodore Caroline Wilson finished third. As a team, the Lafayette girls finished fourth in the race.