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Crusader rewrote record books in 2000

By PETE YOUNG

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 23, 2000

High school girls who run cross country in Florida can breathe a huge sigh of relief next season. Christa Benton's 90-pound reign of terror is over.

Benton, the diminutive three-time state titlist and arguably the greatest girls runner in Florida high school history, will, at last, have graduated.

Before you exhale and head out for a training run, ladies, first thank Jenae Benton for your good fortune. Christa Benton is just 16. She would have another year of high school to go if, at age 5, she and twin brother Roddy hadn't tested into the second grade at Keswick because mom had been home-schooling them. Alas, Benton will head off to college next year, probably at South Florida or Florida State. (Roddy, a computer whiz who designed the Keswick cross country Web site, has been accepted to USF, and they might go together.)

She leaves behind an unmatched legacy.

This year alone, Benton set a state record for girls over 3 miles of 16 minutes, 55 seconds. She easily won her third state title. She became the first Florida girl to win the Foot Locker South Region and placed 12th at the national meet, the highest finish ever by a Florida girl.

"She has the ability to make up her mind what she wants and the drive to go after it," Jenae Benton said.

Benton is exceptionally soft-spoken, but her body language speaks volumes. Within seconds after finishing a race, she appears fully recovered and is smiling. Every time.

"She takes things real seriously and enjoys them at the same time," Jenae Benton said.

The Benton's had no warning that Christa might get so good when she started running in middle school. Her parents were not runners (her father, Rodney, died of cancer when she was in fifth grade), and Christa preferred music -- she's accomplished at multiple instruments -- to sports.

Just a few years later, however, the name Christa Benton is at the top of the list of great runners in Florida prep history.

"She is very, very dedicated," Roddy Benton said. "When she first won state, I was trying to figure out what that meant. That's when I realized how good she was."

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