Largest Watermelon Winners
July 12, 2018 (More photos coming soon) - Twenty-two watermelons were entered into the largest watermelon contest at the 2018 What-A-Melon Festival and the largest watermelon tipped the scales at 152 lbs! The winning melon was grown by Olivia Johnson who won the title and the $2,500 grand prize money six years previous. She had a spree of five years in a row, 2009-2013, and regained 1st place in 2017.
From left: 2018 National Watermelon Queen Savannah Christensen, Olivia Johnson, and 2018 Texas Watermelon Queen Hannah Crisp.
Nineteen of the entries weighed more than 100 lbs this year for a cumulative weight of 2,494 lbs which was moved to the scales by Rotary Club Past-President Scott Stanfield and fellow Rotarian Armando Lopez. Assisting them with moving the melons into position to be weighed was another Rotarian Ed Johnson.
From left: Whitley Johnson with 3rd place melon, Louise Johnson with her 2nd place melon, and Olivia Johnson with her 1st place melon
Over $5,000 in prize money was given out to the 1st through 12th places.
Below are the full results of the watermelon weigh-in:
1st place ($2,500) - 152 lbs, Olivia Johnson
2nd place ($600) - 142.5 lbs, Louise Johnson
3rd place ($500) - 140 lbs, Whitley Johnson
4th place ($400) - 135 lbs, Jenny Johnson
5th place ($300) - 132.5 lbs, Dylan Jones
6th place ($250) - 128.5 lbs, Renee Johnson
7th place ($200) - 127.5 lbs, Shelby Johnson
8th place ($150) - 126 lbs, Jaleigh Johnson
9th place ($100) - 124 lbs, Faith Kruebbe
10th place ($80) - 123.5 lbs, Catch Bragg
11th place ($70) - 120 lbs, Malcom Brown
12th place (60) - 118.5 lbs, (tie) Tate Johnson and Cody Carleta
