Cookeville Cavaliers Cross Country Athlete’s Deacon Daniels stood as the lone junior heading into his final year running.
Daniels entered this season as one of the few upperclassmen on the Cavaliers team. Daniels said since he began running six years ago, he has changed his focus from just competing to becoming a mentor for the younger players. This season has seen Daniels become a mentor through his actions and his words.
“It certainly helps me to help these freshmen get better,” Daniels said. “[I’d like to help them] learn how to improve in their running and to not make mistakes I made when I was younger and learning to run better.”
Daniels said he got his inspiration to run through his grandfather, who ran the Boston Marathon in two hours and 30 minutes. Daniels said his grandfather would share what he learned even as Daniels found out the sport of cross country can become discouraging.
“[He told me] to keep at it and don’t stop,” Daniels said. “It sucks at first and sometimes you plateau and you think you’re not going to get better and you get frustrated, but if you keep going, you get over those humps.”
For Daniels, pacing became one of the biggest lessons he grew up learning. Daniels said early in his career, he would start races either too fast or too slow. Daniels said he found his rhythm as he began running for the Cavaliers, trimming his time in 5k runs by more than two minutes since his freshman year.
“I’m very happy with the growth I’ve made,” Daniels said. “Last year I could barely get [my 5k runs at] under 20 so I’m pretty happy with that.”
Daniels ran his latest 5k run at 18 minutes and 45 seconds.
