KARNS CITY — Rebecca Pennington wasn't born to run.

She just loves doing it — a lot.

The Karns City senior cross country standout has not lost a regular season Keystone-Shortway Athletic Conference race since her sophomore year. That streak stands at 13 entering this week.

Pennington will also carry a 31-meet distance event KSAC win streak in track and field into next spring.

“She's like a machine out there,” KC cross country coach Colin Gaiser said. “Rebecca doesn't really have a finishing kick. She runs at the same pace all the time.

“But it's a fast pace. Not many boys (in the KSAC) have beaten her the past couple of years.”

Only 10 boys in the conference beat Pennington all of last season. Nine boys have done so this year. KC teammate Gavin Schmoll is the first Gremlin boy to defeat her in two years.

Pennington hasn't always been at this level. She began running cross country in seventh grade “because my dad did it in high school and I wanted to give it a try.”

Rob Pennington is a 1984 Karns City graduate who qualified for the state meet his senior year and placed as high as eighth in the district.

His daughter has stayed with the sport despite developing anorexia in eighth grade — an illness that affected most of her freshman season — and a stress fracture in her foot that affected her sophomore campaign.

“She actually broke that foot twice,” her father said. “The first time was the spring of her freshman year, then she aggravated it doing cross country her sophomore year.

“She never stopped running, though. Rebecca's pain tolerance is pretty high. She never feels it.”

Pennington experienced dehydration while running cross country and playing basketball in junior high. She developed anorexia through a mental attitude toward food as a result.

“Being dehydrated, she started associating eating with pain and the whole thing spiraled,” Rob Pennington said. “She dropped 30 pounds in five or six weeks.

“Once she was diagnosed, she was able to work her way back.”

Rebecca said some of her friends tried convincing her to give up running and try something else.

“I never thought about quitting,” she said. “I love running too much. My passion for it kept growing.

“After my sophomore year, I knew I had to take running more seriously, amp up my training if I was to get where I wanted to go.”

Her goals now are to run distance in college — most likely at Chatham — win District 9 in cross country and place at the state meet.

“I want to run under 20 minutes consistently,” Pennington said. “Your time always varies by how difficult the course is.”

Pennington's personal-best time of 19 minutes, 47 seconds was set last season. Her best time so far this year is 20:20.

She placed third in the District 9 cross country meet last year, trailing two girls from Bradford. The D-9 champion has graduated and the runner-up, Amanda Foster, is back.

“Rebecca finished second (to Foster) at a meet last weekend,” Gaiser said. “She's trying to catch her.

“Her (Pennington's) dedication is why she's so good. She runs a lot of miles on her own, regardless of the weather. When you think about it, our sport is punishment for other sports. Do something wrong in another sport and they make you run.”

Pennington was MVP of KSAC cross country last fall and was Co-MVP of the conference in track last spring. She participates in musicals in between sports.

She carries a 3.99 grade point average, is ranked among the top 20 in her class and wants to go into pre-med in college.

Pennington has also done mission work in Haiti and New York through the Zion Church in Karns City.

“She's just a fantastic kid, totally humble,” Gaiser said. “Rebecca Pennington is a role model the way she conducts herself.”

She's obviously a winner.

“It's just practice,” Pennington said. “If the weather's too bad to run outside, I'll go to the gym. If I don't push myself, I won't know what I can do.”