Athlete of the Week: Daniel Borash

Daniel Borash, a senior cross country runner from Bowlus, Minnesota, had a historical performance at the Roy Griak Invitational at the University of Minnesota last Saturday.

Borash won the meet with a time of 27:00.0, which made him the first men’s Falcon runner to win the individual title at Griak in school history. Borash also took first place two weeks earlier at the URWF Falcon Invitational. The Student Voice sat down with Borash to discuss his recent success and future goals as the cross country season hits the halfway point.

Q: When did you start running cross country? At UWRF?

A: I started in seventh grade so I’ve been doing this for 10 years. This will be my fifth year.

Q: What was the toughest thing you’ve had to overcome in your career?

A: I broke my foot last fall so I had to sit the season out. It was on a run when I twisted my ankle on a rock on a trail and found out later I had fractured three bones in it. It took a little while [to overcome] because I didn’t get it diagnosed right away and I didn’t think it was as severe as it was. The whole process probably took two months to get back into running. I started off mostly biking and throughout track I got a lot stronger and by summer I was ready to go again.

Q: What was the feeling to be first men’s individual winner at this meet in school history?

A: It was awesome. Just the whole way down the chute I was like I did it, I’m here, I got it.  It was a great feeling, just knowing that it was a goal of mine since my freshman year and that feeling of accomplishment to know I crossed that line first.

Q:  This was your second meet in a row with a first place finish, so what’s different this year?

A: Training-wise it’s been pretty consistent the last few years. I’ve been putting in a lot of miles over the summer so I knew I was physically strong but my racing tactics are a bit different than I used to do. It’s nice because I run with my teammate Julian [Manley], who’s also very good and did well at the meet. We were able to run together through most of the race, which made it easier to run comfortably through most of the race. Then when you really need to hammer it out you have a little bit extra. I got to about three quarters of the way through the race and I was able to take off where the guys in front were tiring out by then.

Q: What’s your favorite memory from being part of the cross country team for four years?

A: The whole experience of how close the team gets every year. I always think we’re as good of friends as we can be and the next year we’re even closer. It’s a great experience to be part of a team like that.

Q: What are your goals for the season now that you’ve won multiple meets?

A: Personally I would like to do well in conference and place top 10 hopefully and then go onto the national meet from the regions. It’d be really nice to get me and Julian onto the national meet. And for the team I’d just like to see improvement. I think our team can do really will in the later season meets. Just to do better than last year is the goal.