The crowning moment of Paulo Benavides' six-year collegiate career came in a wet palace.
The setting, Oregon's rebuilt Hayward Field, was as spectacular as the UTEP pole vaulter imagined, a fitting site to turn the page on his college career and begin a pro one.
The rainy weather was a different matter, but the Franklin alum and transfer from Kansas endured it well enough to tie for seventh and earn his first outdoor first-team All-American honors last Wednesday in Eugene, Ore.
"I was happy, that was definitely one of the goals, to go for and make All-American," Benavides said after his return to El Paso this week.