Mark Johnson attended Mason City High School and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Mark was very modest when asked to list his high school and college accomplishments so with the help of Dave Long, His high school coach, some of Mark’s accomplishments are:
- Mark is one of two cross country runners to ever win four individual State Cross Country titles. He won as a Freshman-Sophomore-Junior-Senior. The other runner is from New Mexico.
- He led his team to two Team Titles in Cross Country. In winning the title in 1972 the team scored 20 points and their 5th runner placed 11th and was not counted.
- He won the 2-mile run at the state meet in 1971 and 1973.
- He won the 2 mile a Drake in 1971 and 1973. His time of 9.02 still stands. Injury prevented him from winning in 1972.
- He ran one competitive mile in 4:22.
- At the Dodger Relays in Ft. Dodge in 1973, Mark ran 9:17 in the 2-mile run only to come back 20 minutes later to run 1:59 on the 3rd leg of the 2-mile relay.
- Heavily recruited by 30-40 colleges he decided to attend Wisconsin. His biggest achievement was when he beat Craig Virgin in the 2-mile run indoors at Illinois in a time of 8:34.