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Letter to the editor

Benton claims title third straight year

By DAVE THEALL, Running
Published December 2, 2007

Defending Times Turkey Trot women's winner Christa Benton achieved her main goals last week and happened to finish first for the third straight year.

Those goals were to have fun and greet old friends and make new acquaintances. And the 23-year-oldmusic teacher at Northside Christian cruised to a win in 37:10. That time was off from her 35:56 win last year but gratifying just the same.

"I just tried to run an even pace and have fun," said Benton, training in earnest for the Dec. 9 Gulf Beaches Halfathon (13.1 miles) and her second running of the Disney World Marathon on Jan. 13, an Olympic Trials qualifier.

Ten years ago Benton ran the Turkey Trot for the first time, clocking 40:08 and finishing eighth place.

Benton's best time for the half-marathon is 1:21. Her marathon debut at Disney in January resulted in a swift 2:57:25, in which she was overtaken in the stretch drive by Gabiela Trana of Costa Rica, who won in 2:57:03.

Benton wasn't challenged in the Turkey Trot as she ran away from Kim Fagen, a former Gibbs High and Eckerd standout, who is a U.S. Navy M.D. stationed in San Diego. Her time was 38:56.

In age-group scoring, Denise Skinner, 51, of St. Petersburg was officially elevated to second in the masters (40-plus) division with her time of 43:18. And she won (20:08) the preliminary 5K grandmasters women's division.

As a consequence of Skinner moving up in the corrected 10K results, Dee Anna Farnell of Belleair took the third grandmasters 10K award with her 49:55. And she placed third in the corrected version of the 5K, posting 22:47 for her first award of the morning.

These changes are reflected in the official results posted on www.coolrunning.com by West Florida Y Runners official Ric Dorre.

Just as Benton and men's 10K Iraq War veteran Elias Gonzalez were winning for the third time, Jacki Wachtel of Tarpon Springs captured her third Wingding 5K title. Ten years ago as an 18-year-old freshman at Ohio University, the former Jacki Waller won in 18:06. She improved on that time two years ago with a 17:55 effort. She then jumped into the 10K an hour later, taking third in 38:31.

This year Wachtel found herself in second place during the first mile behind Chris Woytalewicz of Brandon.

"I caught up with her at about the half-mile mark and didn't pass her until the three-quarter-mile mark," said Wachtel, 28, a math teacher at Mitchell High School in Trinity. "I thought my split time at Mile 1 was fast, 5:23, but I felt fine and just kept at it, wondering if maybe there was someone (another woman) else up ahead of me."

Wachtel proceeded to run away from the women's field winning in 17:25, a personal record for 3.1 miles on the road, track or cross country. That was the fastest women's time on the Trot course since Lisa Vaill of Brooksville won with a 17:19 in 1998. Vaill holds the women's record of 16:49 set in 1990.

5K MEN'S RECAP: Tyrone Bell, 23, a former Land O'Lakes and Florida Southern standout, captured the crown in a swift 15 minutes flat. That was the fastest time in the race since Jim Sellers of Tampa posted 14:58 in 2000. Defending champion (and 10K also) Kevin Lyons of Palm Harbor finished second in 15:25. Northeast High grad Jon Mott (14:48) was fourth followed by Seminole High's Christian Homme, 11th in 16:27 among Pinellas men. Homme was recently named the Times high school cross country runner of the year.

5K MASTERS WOMEN: In a rare Pinellas sweep, Donna Nesslar, Laure Blume and Carol Glassock finished 1-2-3. Overall, they finished Nos. 8, 9 and 10.

[Last modified December 1, 2007, 21:25:09]