Zach Daniel enters his third season as the head coach of the West Texas A&M Cross Country program in 2024 after his hire December of 2021.
2023 saw the Buffs and Lady Buffs dominate the Lone Star Conference as WT claimed their 11th straight men's cross country crown along with the women's first title in a decade. Daniel was selected as the LSC Men's and the LSC Women's Coach of the Year. It was the second straight conference coaching awards for Daniel who led both teams to their respective conference championships. The WT men's team placed an all-time best fourth at the NCAA Division II Championships following a third-place finish at the Division II South Central Region championships. The Lady Buffs posted an all-time best sixth-place finish at the NCAA Division II Championship after placing fourth at the South Central Region championship.
In his second season, Daniel led the West Texas A&M Cross Country program to their tenth consecutive Lone Star Conference Championship and was named the LSC Coach of the Year. His runners earned ten All-Conference honors, one All-Academic, the LSC Championship individual finishes for both men’s and women’s and had both the men’s and women’s Lone Star Conference Runners of the Year.
At the 2022 NCAA Division II National Championship, Coach Daniel led the women’s team to a 13th place finish with 381 points and the men’s team to a 15th place finish with 400 points. Daniel coached three All-Americans, Harry Lourador, Florance Uwajeneza and Eleonora Curtabbi, with Uwajeneza and Lourador earning the Lone Star Conference Runners of the Year. The Lady Buffs had the best individual finishes in school history with Florance Uwajeneza taking 5th overall, and Eleonora Curtabbi taking 6th.
Daniel comes to Canyon following three seasons as an assistant at UT Rio Grande Valley. Daniel worked with the distance runners on the cross-country course as well as the track. He guided Abraham Chirchir to a Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Championships in the 5,000 and 3,000-meter runs during the 2020 Indoor season with the fourth-fastest 5,000-meter run and the sixth-fastest 3,000-meter marks in program history.
Daniel was a volunteer assistant coach with the cross country and track & field programs at West Texas A&M in 2017-18, where he assisted with workouts and practices, oversaw injured student-athletes' cross-training regimens, and assisted in the operations of meets. He also assisted in recruiting and camp promotion. WT won the conference championship in men's cross country and finished second on the women's side. During track & field season, WT produced All-Americans in the Indoor Mile Run and the Outdoor 5,000-meter run.
The Crane, Texas native competed at WT for four years of track & field and three of cross country as a student-athlete from 2013-17. Daniel reached the NCAA Championships in cross country all three years and won conference championships in the outdoor 10,000 and 5,000-meter runs. He was all a two-time Academic All-American, the 2016 Lone Star Conference Academic Athlete of the Year, and the 2014-15 WTAMU Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Daniel also competed in cross country at South Plains College I 2012, reaching nationals and earning all-conference honors. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Sports and Exercise Science from West Texas A&M in 2016 and his Master of Science in Sports and Exercise Science in 2018.
Daniel married wife, Leslie Daniel, in 2022.
