MAIN MAN : Niednagel Goes From Supporting Role to Star at Dana Hills

Last season, Daniel Niednagel was a good cross-country runner on Dana Hills High School’s great cross-country team. Now, the reverse appears to be true.

Led by identical twins Mike and Andrew Tansley and Niednagel’s older brother, Steve, Dana Hills won the state cross-country championship for large schools in 1988. The state title capped a season in which the Dolphins won their second consecutive Southern Section 4-A championship. And for the third year in a row, Dana Hills was unbeaten in dual meets.

Only a sophomore in 1988, Daniel Niednagel was the only Dana Hills runner who stayed healthy enough to compete in every varsity race.

“Daniel was our mainstay,” Dana Hills Coach Tim Butler said. “He was our solid one and he got the job done when we needed him.”

Because of his durability and his 25th-place finish at the state meet, Niednagel shared the team’s most valuable runner award with No. 1 runner Mike Tansley.

This year, the situation is far different for Dana Hills.

With the Tansleys and Steve Niednagel lost to graduation, the Dolphins lost their first dual meet since 1985 last week to El Toro.

Dana Hills has virtually no chance of defending its Southern Section championship, much less the state championship. But Daniel Niednagel, now Dana Hills’ No. 1 runner, hasn’t faded away. San Clemente’s Mike Farrell, a senior, will give Niednagel his strongest competition in the league.

So far this season, Niednagel’s teammates haven’t been able to come within a minute of him in the three-mile races. And although he concedes it’s difficult to run his best without someone to pull him along, Niednagel has been pushing himself to faster times.

Saturday, at the Dana Hills Invitational, he won the junior race for large schools in 14 minutes 45 seconds. Only Mike Tansley, who ran 14:44 on the course as a junior and was watching with a stopwatch Saturday, has run a faster time for three miles for Dana Hills.

Niednagel pulled away from Eddie Salinas of Saddleback in the last 400 yards of the three-mile race. Niednagel’s stride was strong but several glances back at Salinas might have slowed his time.

“I think he knows he could have gone a little bit faster,” said Butler.

Butler said he doesn’t want Niednagel to be satisfied so early in the season. His best races, the coach said, should come at the end.

Watching from the stands, Niednagel’s parents, Paul and Lynne, were satisfied with their son without knowing his time.

Besides Daniel and Steve, who is now attending UCLA, the Niednagels have two other sons involved in athletics--their oldest, Jonathan, who plays soccer for The Master’s College in Newhall, and their youngest, David, a freshman cross-country runner at Dana Hills.

In fact there is a family rule that each boy must be involved in something, Paul Niednagel said.

Success isn’t a requirement, only an honest try. And no quitting. As for school work, that’s another story. “Our parents pressure us hard to get good grades,” David said. “Sometimes when we get a bad grade, we get grounded from sports.”

Paul Niednagel said he thinks cross-country is a good activity for his sons because it keeps them busy. The sport also teaches persistance, self-discipline and tenacity, Niednagel said.

“I’m a demanding father,” he said.

He didn’t demand his sons play football, the sport he played at Wheaton College in Illinois.

“I wanted them to be involved in something in which injuries are not part and parcel of every play,” he said.

Jonathan didn’t heed the fatherly advice and played football for four years at Capistrano Valley Christian. But when Steve decided to run cross-country for Capistrano Valley Christian, the mold was apparently cast for the rest of the family.

When academic concerns by his parents led Steve to transfer to Dana Hills, he had to sit out his junior cross-country season.

Daniel, who started high school at Dana Hills, said his father’s call to stay away from football was unnecessary in his case.

“I never wanted to play football,” said Daniel, who 5-foot-10 and 140 pounds. “I’d get killed. I’m a wimp when it comes to hitting people like that.”

Besides the loss of the three talented runners to graduation, Daniel no longer has the companionship of three good friends.

“He really misses them,” Lynne Niednagel said. “Not only in training but in the relationship they had.”

But Butler said Niednagel is doing well in his new role as the team leader.

“He’s got other things that make him feel he belongs, like being the captain and leading the whole team,” Butler said.

Because the team isn’t what it once was, Niednagel often tries to push his teammates by hanging back in the pack in the early part of races.

It’s not a strategy that he will employ as often as the season progresses, but he believes his teammates will improve.

“It’s not like we have a slow team,” he said. “We’re still pretty quick.”

But Niednagel knows any trip he takes to the state meet will probably have to be alone this year. He’ll likely have to qualify as an individual.