It's a Saturday afternoon in June in Indianapolis, Indiana. Fourteen of the country's best 1,500 meter women runners age 20 and under are lining up to compete at the United States Junior Track and Field Championships. Most of the runners are in college, two, are former champions of this event, and one, Danielle Tauro from New Jersey, is a high school junior. Tauro is the David among track's Goliaths in this event. Tauro is younger, smaller and lacked the experience of her competitors. However like her biblical counterpart, she took on the Giant, and she won.
At stake in this race was the opportunity to be the United States Champion in a the metric mile and represent the United States at the World Junior Olympics in Beijing, China this August.
The four-lap race started off with Tauro staying with the top three runners, letting others set the pace. Then with one lap left Tauro took the lead. Erin Bedell, from Baylor University kept up with Tauro and the final 220 meters came down to a sprint. Tauro doesn't run, she flows, and with her elegant running style that was developed with years of dance and running Tauro pulled ahead and won the United States Championship.
The moment was not lost on the honor student, " It is incredible, just to be in the same stadium next to World Class runners. I got to run against non-high school runners, which make me better. It's such a high level of competition, and winning is just crazy," Tauro said.
If representing your country at any Olympics requires super human efforts, then imagine the additional effort required by a high school junior to achieve this success. Tauro's dedication is only surpassed by her modesty.
Tauro runs for Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin, NJ. This is a town down by the Jersey Shore. In New Jersey runners have three seasons. They start the school year by running 3.1-mile races in various parks during cross-country season. Then beginning in December it's indoor running for indoor track and field. Starting in March, the focus turns outdoors as the runners turn their attention to outdoors track and field. Tauro runs all three seasons. She started in her freshman year and has improved exponentially. There has not been this much potential quality and attention given to a New Jersey woman distance runner since 14-year-old Mary Decker in the early 70's, before she had to leave New Jersey and go with her family to California.
The urban legend is that Tauro's coach Brian Zatorski was standing outside his classroom one day and asked if Danielle would like to run track. She said sure and the next day she was running five-minute miles. It did not exactly happen like that.
"Not many people know that I ran cross country in my freshman year of high school," Tauro noted, "It was the first time I ever ran. I remember I won my county freshman race. That year it was my base mileage year."
Tauro was accomplished and athletic coming into high school.
"I used to tap dance. I did that for about five years. I was also involved in theater. That's where I learned my discipline. My involvement in theater started in the third grade. I joined a professional theater company. My first big part was in Oliver, I had to get dressed like a boy. Then afterward I joined a local production company, Our Gang Players.
I would be in three productions simultaneously. There would be practice in the morning with one play, another practice in the afternoon, then a performance at night. I used to sleep in the car going from production to production." Tauro said.
"That experience really taught me the discipline that I use in high school. I had to set my time; I had to make priorities between school, singing lessons and dance. I was juggling a lot of activities at once, like I am doing today," said Tauro.
As she began high school Tauro shifted her focus from theater to running. As a freshman, she caught the attention of New Jersey runners at a local Invitational where she ran a 5:12 mile. She went on to win the State Championship in the 1,600-meter run that year in 4:52 beating out the unbeatable Brittney Sedberry of Ocean County.
"As a freshman I did not really comprehend what was happening. It did not sink in at the time, I look at my current team mate, Jillian Smith, and she is going through what I went through then and I am guiding her, I feel like her big sister. I am making sure she appreciates what is happening to her, that's something I didn't take the time to do," Tauro said.
Tauro ended her freshman year as the New Jersey champion in the 1,600-meter (just short of one mile) run. Next up would be Tauro's first attempt at running and winning through all three running seasons.
Her sophomore campaign in cross-country proved to be very successful.
Danielle placed third in almost every major race that year including the New Jersey State Championship, this time being the victim of Ocean City's Brittany Sedberry's running skills.
"That year in cross country I felt it was like my first year running. I ran a bunch of races and I kept coming in third. I guess that was my lucky number that year." Tauro recalled.
As noted above the second third of the New Jersey running year is indoor track, and Tauro went right into the season after cross-country in her sophomore year.
Tauro concentrated on the speed races. She ran an indoor 800-meter run in the Shore Conference Championships with a 2:22 then went on to win the State Indoor 1,600 meter Championship in 4:57.
"I think that Indoor State Meet of Champions race was one of my best races. I started out and fell right on my face. I got up and said 'okay Danielle, don't cry just get back into your pace and get back into the race.' I wound up winning. I thought that was a big achievement," Tauro said.
Next up was the 2005 outdoor track season and Tauro, who was great to begin with, got better. She won the State Semi finals, known as Group Championships, in the 800 and 1,600 meters and went on to compete in and repeat as Champion in the State Girl's 1,600-meter run with a 4:56.
"It's crazy to win this race as a freshman. So my goal was to win the New Jersey Girls 1,600 for four straight years. Only one person has ever done that. (Tauro if she accomplishes this goal will be the first women to achieve this.) So I'm at the starting line in my sophomore year and all I am thinking to myself is – 'Don't screw up.' Really. I didn't want to lose my goal in just my second year. I was more relieved than happy to win that race," said Tauro who completed her sophomore year as the State's best runner in 1,600 meters, both indoor and outdoors, and third best in cross-country.
In the summer of 2005 Danielle Tauro prepared for her junior year of high school and the record books. She completely dominated the New Jersey cross country circuit, winning four major races including the State Championship at Holmdel Park. She won the Meet of Champions covering the 5K course that includes "heart attack hill" in 18:03. She had previously run the famed Holmdel course in 17:52 making her third (again third) fastest in the history of that course, a record that compares to runs dating back to the 1970's. She continued her impressive cross-country campaign by placing 5th in the Northeast Footlocker Championships and 6th in the National Footlocker Championships in San Diego with a time of 17:55.
"At the New York Footlocker Championships the goal was to come in top ten and go to the Championships. I didn't care at all about my time, just as long as there were no more than nine people ahead of me," Tauro said.
"The National Footlocker Championship was a great experience. I looked and jogged the course prior to the race and it seemed so easy, then when I got out there racing it was so deceiving. That's a hard course. I ran the first two miles at a nice pace and I kind of was in a trance, happy with my situation. Then with about a mile to go my coach kind of woke me up and yelled to push. I ran that last mile so fast, I was completely exhausted at the end, and I just collapsed after the finish."
Lest anyone forget Tauro was still a junior in high school, with all the pressures that entails. Track Coach Brian Zatorski who is also a guidance counselor at Southern Regional High School spoke about Tauro's academic achievements, " She is as good, if not a better student, than a runner. She has a Grade Point Average of 97.6 out of 100. She is ranked 43rd in a class of 733. She is in honors math (calculus this year) and science (advanced physics). She never misses a test, never misses an assignment. Here is a kid that has every excuse in the world to ask for a postponement of a test or homework, but she never does that. This is a student who should go early decision at a very good college, not because of her running, but because of her academics."
Zatorski went on to describe Tauro, "You know I just don't know enough superlatives to describe her. I think the best thing I can say about her is that she is a great teammate. She is the first to practice, the last to leave. If you watch her races when she crosses the finish line she always looks back to see how her teammates are doing. It's a pleasure coaching her, not because of her results, she is just a great kid."
Tauro spoke about balancing her academic and sports schedule. "It actually gets pretty stressful. Running helps to relieve the stress. I get out of school at about 2:15; track practice is until 4:15. After that I go home and do homework and study and I don't go to sleep until I'm done," Tauro went on, " I am very determined in putting my priorities together. My best friends are on the track team, so track is also my social life, but there are so many times that my friends will go out and I just say that I can't."
Having an incredible cross-country season in her junior year, Tauro picked up on indoor track where she left off by posting impressive victories in the 800 and 1,600-meter races in the New Jersey Semifinals. However when the State had its Meet of Champions, Mother Nature decided to have a snowstorm. The event was notable by all the athletes that could not attend. Tauro was one of the absent athletes, at home with the flu.
"I had the flu for two weeks, but what I missed most was just getting up and running. I thought I would lose all my speed during those two weeks." Tauro said. Was she ever wrong.
Her junior year of outdoor track would be the most scrutinized and impressive of her career. She started out the year by winning the Penn Relay mile in 4:48. The significance of that moment did not elude her, "I was running in front of a crowd of people who truly understand and appreciate running. I was becoming a part of history, getting the Penn Relays watch, it was a great experience."
She repeated with a third State Champion in the mile with a 4:48.
Tauro took that victory and excelled at new levels in June of 2006. She won the Nike Outdoor Championship and as noted above won the US Junior Championship.
The upcoming months are going to be amazing for Tauro. Academically she will be going to college but like many other teenagers she is "clueless" about where she will go.
Her coach gave a glimpse into what her senior year will look like. "She's going to concentrate on being 17 this year," Zatorski said, " She is going to go to China to represent the United States in the 1,500 meter run. She'll be training for that this summer. Then she has to rest. She'll miss most of the cross-country season, but she needs to look at colleges. After that I think Danielle is going to run mostly relays. They're fun and it's important to have fun in a sport. We need her for her teammates. They look up to her and she is a great example for them."
Tauro is an example for everyone.
This article cannot end without mentioning how impressive this Jersey Girl is to talk to. She has a personality as infectious as her broad smile and when she talks she shows poise and presence well beyond her years. When she speaks about her championship races she speaks about her place in the history of the event. Winning in her freshman set her up for a piece of history that she is so aware. She is more impressed with being a part of Penn Relays history than the win. She never gives herself credit for her success, but she has worked hard for all her success.
Her coach said that he does not have enough superlatives to describe Tauro, but we do. Earlier we compared her to Mary Decker, and it is amazing how similar their running styles are. The same words that describe Decker can be used to describe Tauro. It is elegance. It is the word that comes to mind when you see her run and when you speak to Danielle Tauro.