Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: Carlmont’s Daniela Cuadros

Running her final competitive meet at Crystal Springs, Cuadros blazed to a personal record 17 minutes, 49.8 seconds on the 2.95-mile course to capture the CCS Division I girls’ cross-country championship. It was her fourth race of the season on Carlmont’s home course. The previous three times, she settled for a trio of second-place finishes.

“Honestly, those second-place finishes are what inspired my race, because I’ve had some situations where I led most of the race,” Cuadros said. “So, I definitely learned a lot from that.”

In addition to racing 10 competitive varsity races at Crystal, she’s run the course upwards of 50 times in her life. Not only was it her home course when she started running competitively at Ralston Middle School, she is accustomed to training there as Carlmont typically holds Saturday morning practices on the course at Hallmark Park.

“It’s my home course and everyone kind of complains about it ... but it’s honestly my favorite course,” Cuadros said. “I know how to run it, I’m really familiar with it ... and that familiarity is really nice. So, yeah, I love running there.”

Cuadros —the Daily Journal Athlete of the Week — has run many a memorable race at Crystal. As a sophomore, she took ninth place with a time of 19:39.3 in the CCS Division I championship to punch her ticket to the CIF state meet for the first time in her varsity career. As a junior, she ran it in 18:47.8 at CCS to podium with a fourth-place finish, leading the Lady Scots to the Division I girls’ team championship and a return to Fresno’s Woodward Park for a second straight year.

When she crossed the finish line Saturday with a dominant gap of over 15 seconds ahead of Los Altos senior Samantha Witteles, who claimed second place in 18:05.5, it was a different kind of celebration than in previous years — part elation because of the unprecedented individual championship, part exhaustion from running a bonkers final 800 meters.

“I think it was a little bit of both,” Carlmont head coach Josh Schaefer said. “Everybody on the team was really excited and I think there was some level of accomplishment for her. She’s been able to do this for a long time, and for her to finally ... get the monkey off the back in that sense.”

Schaefer, previously having run the program at Ralston Middle School, has coached Cuadros since she was in sixth grade. Even then, Cuadros’ mental game was always strong, he said. However, she, like many a runner who takes on Crystal Springs Cross Country Course, has long been susceptible to its hypnotic qualities on the back half of the sinuous beast.

“The backside of Crystal, you can fall asleep and it can be really a scary experience,” Schaefer said. “It’s quiet back there, it’s quiet as all get out, and it’s just you and your own demons.”

Fortunately for Cuadros, the course gets even scarier than that. And it’s the scarier part — the aptly nicknamed Cardiac Hill — she likes most. After picking off several runners upon their approach, it was on Cardiac Hill she made her move on the leader.

“That’s the point where a lot of people drop off ... so that’s kind of been my start, is when I see them slowing down a little bit,” Cuadros said. “That’s when I have the confidence to go.”

Once over Cardiac Hill, with approximately 1,200 meters left in the race, Cuadros had the lead. This wasn’t exactly the game plan, since hitting overdrive on the hill is typically a surefire recipe for burning out down the stretch. Cuadros, however, has a strong track record of hitting the accelerator early.

While she hadn’t ever won a race at Crystal, Cuadros owns an impressive resume of track and field championships, most recently claiming the Peninsula Athletic League girls’ 3,200 title as a junior. Schaefer said Saturday’s cross-country win followed the same blueprint as Cuadros’ triumph in the 3,200, by appearing to peak earlier than she should have.

“I can’t fault her for that at that point, because she’s done it before that way,” Schaefer said.

And Schaefer has been coaching Cuadros long enough to know she has a knack for marching to the beat of her own drum.

“When she gets her mind set, you’ve got to get out of her way,” Schaefer said.

Cuadros showed why Saturday. Down the stretch, with about 800 meters to go, she used her kick to open a ginormous lead. To say the finish went according to plan is one thing. Yet, there was also an x-factor — the senior had never before found herself in this position, holding a lead with the finish line in her sights, with no other audible footsteps in her vicinity.

“That was my first time doing that, aside from like practice,” Cuadros said. “It was my goal the whole season. I wanted to get to that point all season ... so I was really proud to be able to achieve that strategy.”

With the win, Cuadros becomes the first Carlmont runner to win a CCS girls’ cross-country championship since 2018, when Kaimei Gescuk captured the Division I title at Toro Park in Salinas.

In returning to the state meet for a third straight year, Cuadros will be joined by one other Carlmont teammate, junior Katelyn Elliott, who reached the podium Saturday with a fourth-place finish in 18:14.6. It’s a perfect pairing, as the two have been training partners for the past few years, and even share a nickname inspired by a hybrid of their first names — “Kami.”

“Obviously, having someone that can push you, and can push each other, that’s really significant,” Cuadros said. “So, it’s just been really cool to train with each other.”