As legend has it, Benson Chesang used to run eight miles a day – five days a week – as an elementary-school student in Eldama Ravine, Kenya.
“There are no yellow buses there,” Chesang, Kansas University’s senior cross country standout, said.
So from age 5 to 13, he’d race the two miles from his parents’ farm in time for the 7 a.m. school bell. He’d jog home for lunch at noon and scurry back to academia by 1:15 p.m.
“I’d go home hungry and eat, and my stomach was full. By the time I got back to school, I was hungry again,” Chesang said with a smile, noting he was unable to satiate his hunger pangs until he headed home for good at about 3 p.m.
“It was tough, but you didn’t want to be late for school,” Chesang said.
The running – at least to and from school – stopped in high school when Chesang moved into a dorm on campus.
“I’d still run some, but after school,” said Chesang, who placed third in the 8K at the 1998 district championships, second in the 5,000 at the ’99 provincial championships and first in the 1,500 at the 2,000 interhouse championships, all in Kenya.
He didn’t immediately continue a budding running career upon graduation from high school. Instead, the youngest of 10 Chesang children spent two years on the family farm.
It wasn’t until 2003 he decided to follow his brother, former Kansas State runner Mathew Chesang, to the United States.
Just as his brother fared well at KSU, Benson has fit in well at KU.
The league’s two-time defending individual cross country champion on Oct. 27 will try to become the first KU runner to win three conference titles in a row.
Al Frame won back-to-back Big Seven crowns in 1954-55.
“This year could be the year,” Chesang said. “That is a lot of pressure. I have a lot of stuff to do to get there.”
Everybody in the league will be trying to unseat Chesang at his home course – Rim Rock Farm.
“People stare at you. You can tell they are saying, ‘I’ve got to beat this guy,'” Chesang said. “I am going to be running at home. I have to perform well. Basically the pressure is really on me.”
Chesang – who placed 39th at the NCAA meet last season after a seventh-place finish as a sophomore – is definitely capable of a league three-peat.
“I don’t want to put it into words, but I’d say yeah,” Chesang said, asked if he was the league’s finest.
His words did not seem boastful, merely confident.
“He wants to be the best,” KU coach Stanley Redwine said, stressing Chesang’s best quality is “his desire. “He believes in himself. He loves the competition. He will do a good job.”
Chesang is enthused about KU’s chances his final season.
The Jayhawks return their top five runners off a squad that finished third in the conference and 12th at the NCAAs.
The conference finish was KU’s best since 1991; the NCAA finish the best since 1989.
“I think we’ll have a good team if we stay healthy,” Chesang said.
That’s his goal and after his senior season who knows? He might continue running.
“I would love to run professionally. It depends how good I am at that time,” Chesang said.