Before her senior year at Monterey Leigh Daniel Cordes was a two sport athlete.
By the end of it she had picked up a third, running cross country for the plainsmen, and succeeding at a high level.
“To be standing on the line at the state meet for the two mile for the first time my senior year it was almost surreal it was like how did i end up here i just had a basketball uniform on I’d been focusing on my tennis career.”
One year of running at Monterey turned into a scholarship offer from Texas Tech. As a red raider there was a bit of learning curve for her.
“there’s running terms that i didn’t know there’s different funny little running things that they would talk about i mean they thought i was so clueless and i still had just an excitement for it and heart for it that not they didn’t have but it was just different because it was so new for me”
Daniel would go on to win seven big 12 championships, along with two national titles. In the 1999 outdoor championships she came from behind after losing her shoe in the 10,000 meter race. In 2012 she was inducted into the Texas Tech hall of fame in 2013 came the LISD hall honor,
“being inducted into that seeing just names on there and people that had been inducted before and people that had come after that I’m like oh my gosh those people i watched them i thought they were so awesome it just feels like a huge honor.”
Now an assistant coach along with her husband at LCU she wasn’t sure coaching was going to be for her,
“I immediately fell in love i didn’t think that i necessarily could feel that same excitement for other people’s training and other people’s running ability and their success and that sort of thing that i did about my own but if anything i felt more.”
Daniel Cordes has three kids of her own and also at cardinals fitness.