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Sports

Benfatti's Nerves Become Fuel as Morris/Sussex Runners Hit Penn Relays

21 Apr 2026 2 min readBy Sports News Global Desk (AI-assisted)

For North Jersey's best high-school distance runners, the Penn Relays invitation means little sleep and a lot of research. Roxbury's Gianna Benfatti, leading off a 4x800 at Franklin Field, says she channels her nerves as she prepares for the 130th edition of the carnival.

Key Takeaways

  • 1."That's what Gianna Benfatti will have to face, as the leadoff leg of Roxbury's 4x800," the Morristown Daily Record noted this week.
  • 2.It helps me run faster." Roxbury, Randolph and Morristown all feature in the 9 a.m.
  • 3.Her mother still holds the Morris County 400-metre record, set in 54.97 at the 1996 Meet of Champions for Morris Catholic - but she never ran at Penn herself.

For the high-school runners from New Jersey's Morris and Sussex counties who won tickets to the 2026 Penn Relays, an invitation to Franklin Field is as much a sleepless-night event as a racing one.

Morris Hills senior Nolan Ribeiro, who anchors the boys' 4x800 invited to Philadelphia this week, barely slept the night the formal invitation came through. Instead, the distance runner spent the evening watching old race videos, searching for clues in how past leads started and unwound. One detail he fixed on: average three-day attendance at Penn sits around 100,000, creating a rolling wall of noise on the back straight most athletes have never experienced.

"That's what Gianna Benfatti will have to face, as the leadoff leg of Roxbury's 4x800," the Morristown Daily Record noted this week. Benfatti, a second-year Penn Relays runner who did not carry the lead stick last spring, consulted both her mother Vanessa Lewis Benfatti and Roxbury's 2025 leadoff Leah Johnson. Her mother still holds the Morris County 400-metre record, set in 54.97 at the 1996 Meet of Champions for Morris Catholic - but she never ran at Penn herself.

"I've got to be tough mentally and physically and remember my teammates are counting on me, so I run it as fast as I can," Benfatti said. "It's nerve-racking, but you've got to use it to your advantage. I imagine, when I'm running, the nerves leaving my body. It helps me run faster."

Roxbury, Randolph and Morristown all feature in the 9 a.m. girls' 4x800 heats that open Thursday's schedule. The boys' 4x800 kicks off Friday morning, and the boys' 4x400 heats run alongside the Saturday afternoon college, Masters and international blocks.

Penn is a step up in scale for almost every high-school relay it welcomes. Teams that run their regular state-meet distances under 10,000 fans suddenly hit Franklin Field with a carrying track, crosswinds off the river and a grandstand culture that treats the open 800 metres like a heavyweight title fight. For runners like Benfatti, whose 2:20 personal best has room to come down, the three-day carnival is as much an acid test as a showcase.