Johnson Lee ran a PR to claim the event title with teammate Justin Houck at his side

MONMOUTH, Ore. --- University of Portland junior runner Johnson Lee won the 10,000 meter run at the Western Oregon Twilight on Friday and established a new event record for his native Guam and the entire Micronesian community. Lee, a native of Dededo, Guam, ran a time of 31:39.24 to beat the former mark established 10 years ago.

His time beat the previous Guam/Micronesian record of 31:46.67, which was set on March 28, 2008 by Brent Butler. The time was also nearly a 12-second improvement over Lee’s previous PR of 31:51.13, set a mere two weeks ago at the Willamette Invitational.

“Johnson has been relentless over the last two years with his training and it paid off this weekend,” Portland coach Rob Conner said. “Two years ago he ran 35:05 in his first 10,000 meter race. Last year he ran a remarkable 32:12 and now this season he broke the record. Justin Houck did a great job pacing the race but it came down to pure guts during the last two miles and Johnson ran under ten (minutes) to take the record.  It was awesome!”

Houck, a redshirt junior and one of Portland’s top cross country runners, crossed the finish line side-by-side with Lee.

The record breaking performance was the highlight of the Western Oregon Twilight, but many other Pilots had good showings. View the link at the top of the page for complete meet results.