Track offers world of potential for Benjamin

By Mary Albl for DyeStat

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y.  --  It’s a rare sunny and warm mid-April day at the Mount Vernon High School track, where senior sprinter Rai Benjamin is off in a grassy corner stretching before practice begins. 

His keeps to himself. Composed. Mature. Worldly. His welcoming smile is saved for chatting with some of his teammates. 

But there once was a time not so long algo when Benjamin wasn’t the self-described “chill” kid. 

“He was a knucklehead,” said Mount Vernon head track coach Marcus Green, remembering Benjamin’s first year with the program. “He was a freshman (though). He was acting age-appropriate.”

Four years later and traces of Benjamin’s freshman antics are long gone. 

As he prepares to run the 400-meter hurdles at the Penn Relays this Saturday (9 a.m. Eastern), Benjamin is not stranger to big stages. This spring he hopes to leave a lasting mark on the record book and depart Mount Vernon program as perhaps the best long sprinter to ever come out of New York. 

 “What makes him excel? His mentality,” Green said. “He’s the most humble kid you’ll ever meet.”

Benjamin’s evolution comes with a colorful and cultured back story.

He lives with his mom, Jeanette Mason, who he describes as a book lover. 

“She’s got two Masters (degrees),” he says proudly. 

His dad, Winston Benjamin, played professional cricket in the West Indies in the 1980s. Both of his parents are originally from Antigua. His dad still lives there. 

Neither of Benjamin's parents were track stars. 

Growing up, Benjamin split his time between Antigua and New York. (One of those outbound flights to the islands was on Sept. 11, 2001). 

It wasn’t until the ninth grade, however, when he came back to the states for good to live with his mom, who had moved to Mount Vernon, located north of The Bronx. 

A football player at first, Benjamin’s track career didn’t take flight until his sophomore year.

“That’s when I really started to take it seriously,” he explained.

It was toward the end of Benjamin’s first year with the track program, and he was still making decisions between football and track.  

“There was a point where the team was getting ready to go to states, and he didn’t go, he didn’t qualify,” Green said. “And coach (Chris) Malcolm suggested you should take him up there, let him see it. Once he went up there and saw the level and saw how people were really, really competing, that kind of woke him up.”

From that point on, Benjamin was a track athlete. And as he sprouted to a lean 6-foot-3, he discovered his gift. 

Green said his goal was to make Benjamin into a 400-meter hurdler, but his 200 and 400 dash times kept improving. Green said they are still figuring things out. 

“His full potential hasn’t been reached yet, because he hasn’t fully committed to one event,”Green said. 

Benjamin was recruited to UCLA for his hurdle ability, but with his athleticism and versatility he could be a factor for the Bruins in multiple events. 

He really doesn't have a favorite event. 

“That’s something I’ve been asked before and I still can’t answer,” Benjamin said.  

So far, he owns the New York state records in the outdoor 400 meter hurdles and the indoor 200 and 300.  He also has claim on the Section 1 outdoor 200, 400 and 400 meter hurdles, as well as the indoor 200, 300 and 400.  

Benjamin’s unique background has also has contributed to his development. The dual citizenship has allowed him the opportunity to compete internationally and see more of the world. He’s traveled to Ukraine for the World Youth Championship (2013), representing Antigua, and recently went to the Caribbean for the CARIFTA Games, where he finished second in the 400. 

“Being able to see what’s outside of Mount Vernon, it’s opened my eyes to what other parts of the world are like and what other people have,” he said. “Travel was actually one of the things that initially I really liked about track.” 

His final year of high school track has already been exciting, and dramatic.  

At the New Balance Nationals Indoor at The Armory in March, he was part of a scary pile-up at the finish of the 400 meters final. Benjamin said he was racing toward the finish line and Taylor McLaughlin of Union Catholic (New Jersey) came up on his outside shoulder. McLaughlin edged out Benjamin for the win, but plowed into a meet volunter who was holding the finish line tape and standing in the wrong spot. 

McLaughlin went down in a heap and Benjamin was going too fast to avoid the accident, too. He stumbled and spiked by McLaughlin in the knee.

“I’m saying to myself, ‘He’s not getting up,’” Green said of the incident. “Bigger than that, I’m saying in my head, ‘He’s got to scratch the 200.’”

While it was a terrifying moment, with Benjamin taking a while to get up from the track, he also picked up the victory. McLaughlin was subsequently disqualified for a break-line violation. Benjamin did end up running in the 200 final, finsihing third behind Noah Lyles and Ryan Clark. 

Benjamin can now look back at the memory with a sense of light-heartedness, as he’s seen countless replays of the crash on social media sites -- Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook -- but he doesn’t count the 400 as a victory. 

“In my mind, I didn’t win that race,” he said. “Taylor is a great competitor and it was a good, hard race.”

Benjamin finished the indoor season with US#1 times in the 300 (33.17), 400 (46.59) and third in the 200 (21.09). 

At the CARIFTA Games in St. Nevis and Kitts, he ran the current US#2 time of 46.19. 

A week later, he traveled to California to compete at the Arcadia Invitational where he picked up a win in the 200 and finished second in the 400, losing to Vista Murrieta's Michael Norman, the national leader (45.91).

While Benjamin was touted as a favorite to win the 400 at Arcadia, Green explained this was only the senior’s second race of the outdoor season; something Benjamin was able to put in perspective. 

“He’s started to understand what’s important and what’s not,” Green said. “He’s seeing the big picture in life and that’s impressive.”

Last week at the New York Relays, Benjamin debuted in the 400 hurdles for the first time this season, turning in an impressive time of 53.91, and claimed the 200 title in 21.05, both of which were meet records.

He heads into Penn Relays with the third fastest 400 hurdles time. 

But with all the awards and accolades for the 17-year-old that says he just likes to run, that isn’t going to be what his coach is most proud of. 

“My proudest moment is going to be when he graduates high school,” Green said. “My second proudest moment is going to be when he graduates college. His mindset is one of his greatest (attributes)."