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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 3 82 then she could travel and be a scorer for the team, thinking that'd be a nice entry into col- legiate running. Then, in her first race as a Boilermaker, Benner pum- meled the competition, cruis- ing in 30 seconds faster than the second-place runner. Al- though it was an early-season race against weaker competi- tion, it was a solid indication of what was to come. "What I really noticed this year in Emma is when we were down in Tennessee for the opener, she just blew it out of the water and ran 17-mid on the hilliest, most-challenging course I've ever seen in my life, as a coach and as a com- petitor," Kent said. "So when I saw her doing that by herself and when I asked her after she finished, 'Hey, what percentage of max effort was it?' and she said, 'Oh, probably 70,' that's a really good sign. "I felt there we were on the verge of something special for her individually, and the team is able to feed off that even more." More wins and more accolades followed. Benner finished sixth in the Big Ten Championships, the only freshman in the top 10. Afterward, she was named the league's Freshman-of-the-Year and was first-team All- Big Ten, following a regular season in which she was Purdue's top finisher in all five of its events, with two wins. Benner, who was the two-mile state Minnesota cham- pion last season, credited her improved training on the road and in the weight room, under the guidance of Kent, with her improvement in times. The season was a bit of a redemption tour, with Ben- ner topping those who had done so to her frequently during high school. She fin- ished ahead of Aragone during the regular season, before the Cardinal harrier got her back at the NCAAs. That day, Nov. 19 in Terre Haute, was miserable, with temperatures dropping into the low 30s, with winds blowing at about 20 mph, from a high of 70 the day before. The conditions were the same for all compet- itors, but Benner — running alone rather than having the security of teammates — felt it and got colder and stiffer than she had anticipated. And her results suffered, as her 104th- place finish was about 50 spots lower than what she had target- ed. "I've tried to make sure I'm not too hard on myself, because you can beat yourself up too much," she said. "But when I do poorly, I kind of look at what I could fix. Like at nationals, I was pretty upset, but I realized this is all a new experience and I have so much more improve- ment then, and so much time for that to happen. "But (early in the season), I hadn't thought nationals as an individual would be a possibility. Throughout the season, every race, I was just blown away by the results (I achieved)." Now, Benner prepares for the indoor and outdoor track seasons, while resetting her expectation level. She wants to score for the Boilermakers in distance events — that'd go a long way toward Purdue's overall finish in the Big Ten championships, because it has lacked distance points consistently — with an eye toward nationals, as well. "I think it was exciting for her to be able to see her growth in such a short amount of time," Kent said. "It Purdue Athletics Benner and Carpenter qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships in their first year at Purdue.