BACK ON HER FEET: Union/A-C Valley’s Daniella Farkas Striving for Big Things in Hurdle Events This Year

RIMERSBURG, Pa. (EYT/D9) — A week before the PIAA Track and Field Championships last season, Daniella Farkas found herself face down on the track.

Legs covered in bruises and contusions.

She had fallen over a hurdle. Again.

(Pictured above, Daniella Farkas)

“I fell about three or four days in a row,” said Farkas, now a junior on the Union/A-C Valley girls track and field team. “I just fell and fell and fell. I had all these cuts. I had this huge cut that comes back every time I tan now.”

That scar serves as a reminder to Farkas, an A-C Valley student, that obstacles will always be in front of you — sometimes literally.

Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.

Farkas didn’t fare as well as she would have hoped in the 300-meter hurdles last year in Shippensburg.

She’s determined to get back again and get a medal around her neck this time around.

To do that, she may just have to fall a few more times.

Farkas didn’t see toppling over those hurdles in practice last year as a failure. Just the opposite.

“I feel like you’re not going to get better if you don’t try so hard that you fall,” Farkas said.

The 300 hurdles has emerged as Farkas’ wheelhouse event. Impressive considering she didn’t even start running that race until midseason last year.

Predominantly a 100-meter hurdler, Farkas also ran the 400-meter run and the 4×400 relay. The 300 often conflicted with that lineup.

But almost on a whim, Farkas decided to lobby for a chance to run them.

“One meet I was like, ‘I think I should try this,’” Farkas said. “So I did and I did really well. The next meet, I qualified for districts and it made me so happy because my coach (Stacey Fox) was there every step of the way, telling me all these different things helping me get through everything. I could not ask for a better coach.”

Working with Fox, Farkas has further honed her technique.

It’s showing in her times.

Farkas ran a personal best 49.3 against Karns City on a chilly and damp Wednesday afternoon.

Every race this season, she’s gotten faster.

Farkas hasn’t shied from setting some big goals for herself.

“My tippy top goal right now, which I don’t know if I’m going to make it this season but I’m really trying, is getting our school record for the 300-meter hurdles, which is really an amazing time,” Farkas said.

That record is 46.9 set by Tiffany Baum at A-C Valley.

“I have to shave a bit off,” Farkas said. “I really want to beat that before my senior year.”

Farkas is certainly putting the work in to do it.

When the weather doesn’t cooperate, she’s inside running on a treadmill. She is also an avid biker. She often pedals the Emlenton trail, which is 10 miles round-trip from her home.

“I love the outdoors,” Farkas said. “I really feel relaxed when I bike.”

She is anything put relaxed when she runs the hurdles.

That’s by necessity.

Running the hurdle events is not for the faint of heart. It’s not for the timid.

Farkas finds the 100 hurdles the most challenging because of how close the hurdles are together.

And how high they are.

“My best of the two is definitely the 300,” Farkas said. “That is the race that just feels right to me. But I have improved a lot this year in the 100, so I’m looking to see if I can get somewhere in that.”

Last year, Farkas also qualified for the state meet in the 100 hurdles, but elected not to run them, instead focusing solely on the 300 hurdles.

This year, she has been winning both events in every meet for Union/A-C Valley.

“So, the 100, there is 10 hurdles — I have a lot to get over,” Farkas said, chuckling. “I usually start out really well, but then I start to sit up a little bit. That’s something I have to work on the most. I need to make sure I’m leaning. By the end of the race, I’m just trying to get over them instead of exploding over them.

“My speed in the 100 has improved by like seconds,” Farkas added. “That really makes me happy because that was one of my goals.”

Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.