Denise Benson
Lexington High School
Impact Statement
“It was so much better as a coach than it was as an athlete. It was such a long journey and I felt like I used all of my previous experiences to get there. Life came full circle.” -Denise Benson, on winning a state championship
Biography
This past season, Benson led the Lexington girls’ program to its fourth straight Ohio Division II state championship and fifth in school history. In 2015, Benson, who coaches both the girls’ and boys’ programs, led both teams to state titles. It was just the third time in Ohio cross country history that the same school won both titles.
In two decades at the helm of Lexington’s two programs, Benson, who was a distance runner at the University of Kentucky and a two-time New York state high school cross country champ, has built Lexington into one of the state’s premier cross country programs, winning multiple Ohio Cardinal Conference championships, along with district and regional titles.
In 2017, Brooks Sports named her the winner of the Brooks Running Inspiring Coach of the Year.
Benson is the first Ohio coach to be named the NHSCA National Girls’ Cross Country Coach of the Year.
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