Daniel Golden voted Cross Country Male Performer of the Year

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — The Woodlands High School cross country runner, Daniel Golden, has spent his season collecting titles, including 6A State Champion and Mile Split’s Cross Country Male Performer of the Year.

After watching his three older brothers go through the Highlander cross country program, Golden decided to follow in their footsteps when he was in the 7th grade. The following year brought on some growth spurts, but by the time he was a freshman, he was excited to have made it to the high school program. He joined the varsity team as a junior where his experience of going to state and nationals began. Golden used his junior year experience to get the best season he possibly could as a senior.

As successful as his season was, Golden found it not without disappointments. He fell behind College Park’s Adam Breaux at the 16-6A District Championship and was second to cross the finish line. Golden said it was one of the toughest challenges he faced all season, but he decided to use it as motivation in the remainder of the championship season.

“Most of the season I’d lead most of the race or co-lead it. That bit me in the end when [Breaux] just sat on me the whole time and out kicked me in the end,” Golden said. “I learned to be in the front but be with the guys to conserve something, and make sure you have enough for the end, and that definitely helped me in my regional performance. I think I just learned not to be so aggressive to where the end result isn’t what I want.”

The district loss was a tough one to swallow, but Golden pushed through and started accumulating titles as soon as the next race started. He said he was excited and honored to have even been considered by Mile Split as the Cross Country Male Performer of the Year, but he still counts winning the State Championship as his biggest accomplishment of his athletic career.

“Winning state is just the biggest thing I’ve always dreamed of other than just the team title, which was a huge title I always dreamed of,” Golden said. “Getting the individual one was just insane for me.”

The Highlander’s cross country head coach, Juris Green, said he likes Golden’s story because he wasn’t an automatic prodigy from the start. What Green called the old-fashioned American way, Golden worked and worked until he saw it come into fruition.

“He had to come through the trenches to do it. As he’s done that he’s learned how to be competitive, he’s learned how to lose, and sometimes you don’t want to lose, and it happens and you learn how to take those negatives and positives and apply it to the next competition and get better and better,” Green said. “For us, he’s almost like a poster child for what an athlete you would want to model in terms of his progression. Of course you would love those big guys to be coming in early for four years, but it’s much more gratifying to do it the way he did it.”

Golden has committed to run for University of Texas, where he will join two of his former teammates. He believes having these connections will help him adapt to the program. While he hopes that the structure will be similar to that of the Highlander cross country program, his coach is confident that he will do great things no matter where he is or what he does.

“There are a lot of people who find what he’s finding now,” Green said. “He had a lot of talent, but it’s taken more work to get there, so what he’s finding now is just the fold gets bigger and bigger and bigger with possibilities. Doors are opening for him.”