Winn Looks To Cap Rags-to-Riches Career At NCAA Outdoors
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
When Daniel Winn crossed the finish line after running a mile at the Husky Classic in Seattle this February, he was crushed.
The lithe senior from Portland had been gunning for an NCAA Championships qualifying time, the first of his UO career, in his fifth and final season of eligibility. Crossing under 4 minutes, something less than a dozen Ducks had ever done at that point, was a goal as well.
Then Winn finished fourth in his heat, more than two seconds back of the leader. No way that effort was good enough, he thought. Already he was looking ahead to the next meet, his last chance to qualify for nationals.
Then times began popping up on the scoreboard. The runner in third, Michael Atchoo, who crossed just ahead of Winn, finished in 3:57.58. Winn didn’t even wait to see his own time; he knew he’d been close enough to Atchoo to have earned his qualifying time, and a sub-4 effort to boot.
It was only after taking a moment to celebrate with teammates and parents that Winn looked back up to see his own time: 3:57.62. A school record, by less than one-tenth of a second.
“The cherry on top,” Winn said recently when recalling that day.
Of course, Winn knew then what some others didn’t. Later that day, across the country in New York, his teammates Edward Cheserek and Johnny Gregorek would toe the line for the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games. Winn’s record wouldn’t last for long.
“I think by the time I was back from my cool down it was like, ‘How did Ed run? 3:56? OK,’ “ Winn recalled with a laugh.
For Oregon’s program, that Winn could become a school record-holder in the indoor mile – even for just an hour or so – is as notable as the fact the indomitable Cheserek would later break it. For every star such as Cheserek, there are two or three Winns in the record contingent of 45 athletes the Ducks have entered in the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, to be held Wednesday through Saturday at Hayward Field.
Contenders for individual titles like Cheserek or javelin thrower Sam Crouser can put a team in title contention. Potential point scorers like Winn can put them over the top; such was the case in March, when Winn became an all-American for the first time with his sixth-place finish in the 1,500 meters at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at Arkansas, helping Oregon win the team title.
Winn will try to match that feat this week, when he closes out his collegiate career in the NCAA Outdoor meet at Hayward Field. He’ll run in the meet’s first individual event, the 1,500 preliminaries on Wednesday afternoon, and then if all goes well the final on Friday.
Five years ago, Winn nearly had to beg his way onto the UO roster as a walk-on. A year ago he watched the NCAA Outdoor meet as a fan. Now he’ll run on collegiate track’s biggest stage.
“It’s a huge difference to try to be contributing, than just be a fan,” Winn said. “Hopefully I can score some points and help us out there.”
Winn attended Cleveland High in Portland, with dreams of becoming a Man of Oregon. He contacted assistant coach for distances Andy Powell several times about walking on, only to be rebuffed. Finally, when Winn won state titles in the 1,500 and 3,000 as a senior, Powell relented.
“For someone to come from such depths – almost begging to be on the team – to being a star and being here at the crescendo of collegiate track and field, is awesome,” UO head coach Robert Johnson said. “… It doesn’t get any better, for rags-to-riches stories, than that right there.”
Between rags and riches was a lot of hard work. Winn broke in with the Ducks for a handful of meets over his first two college seasons, and showed signs of progress during his redshirt sophomore season in cross country in 2012, when he was an alternate for the NCAA Championship meet.
As a junior, Winn actually got to run at nationals in cross country, and he reached regionals on the track. But it wasn’t until this year, in March in Arkansas, that he finally was able to race – and score – in a national meet on the track. “It gave me some confidence that at least I belonged at the national championships,” Winn said, before adding with characteristic self-effacing wit: “It was just on me not to screw it up.”
This week, Winn is running again to score for the Ducks at nationals. With every step he takes, he validates Powell’s decision to accept him as a walk-on. He hopes, too, to validate Powell’s training plan, and the way it molded Winn into an all-American.
“I came here because I really believed in the system and what they were doing here,” Winn said. “Obviously Ed and Eric (Jenkins) can be the face of the team. But it really bothers me when people try to take away from what the coaches are doing, and just credit them because they get top recruits.
“So if I can be representative of, ‘No, no, this is a really impressive system, and anyone who has a chance to go through the system can gain a lot’ – if I can represent in that way, that’s really important to me.”
There would be no better stage on which to make that statement than this week at Hayward Field.
