Steier May Run For The Money

Former Berkeley Prep and Stanford University standout Rolf Steier says he is considering competing for the local prize money up for grabs in the Gasparilla Distance Classic 15-kilometer run.

The race, which this year will see a new title sponsor, Publix Super Markets, is slated for Feb. 9. The 15k's top male and female finishers from the Tampa Bay area will each earn $2,000. Prize money will go five places deep.

Steier, who won eight state titles during his high school career and earned All-American status in the 1,500-meter run during his senior year at Stanford, has been training in Tampa since graduating with his master's degree.

Steier is hoping to achieve the U.S. Olympic track and field trials qualifying standard for the 1,500 but has been logging some serious mileage and impressive workouts that could translate into a fast 15k performance on the roads of south Tampa.

"My training has been going great," Steier said. "I think I'm in pretty good shape but 15k is significantly farther than anything I've raced before."

His top competition could be last year's local prize-money winner, Tyrone Bell of Lakeland, who was third in 47 minutes, 1 second. Bell recently won the Say No To Drugs Holiday Classic 10k in 31:43.

If Steier managed to produce a victory, he would become one of the few runners in the 31-year history of Gasparilla to win both the 15k and 5k. As a junior at Berkeley Prep in 2001, Steier won the 5k in 15 minutes, 35 seconds.

GONZALEZ OUT: Former Gasparilla 15k winner Elias Gonzalez, winner of November's Times Turkey Trot, says he is not going to run this year's Gasparilla race. Since returning from U.S. Army Reserves duty in Iraq, Elias says his training has been limited because he has been busy starting a restaurant business in Tampa.

BENTON BACK: On the women's side, former USF All-American Christa Benton of St. Petersburg already has signed up to defend her Gasparilla 15k title. A five-time state prep champion in cross country and track while at Keswick Christian, Benton won the Times Turkey Trot 10k in 37:10 in November and said she was using it as part of her tune-up for Gasparilla. She should get some good competition for the local prize purse. Among those expected to contend are St. Petersburg's Melanie Peters, who won the recent Say No To Drugs 10k in 37:33, masters runner Christie Phillips, who was third at last month's Jacksonville Marathon, and Tarpon Springs' Jacki Wachtel, who was second to Peters at So No To Drugs by just two seconds.