Ovid-Elsie Running Legend Darling Seeking to 'Win the Day' on Trading Floor
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
August 13, 2024
Maverick Darling’s competitive running days have been behind him for nearly a decade, but the eight-time MHSAA Finals champion from Ovid-Elsie isn’t done competing.
Darling, who was also a five-time All-American at Wisconsin, is now fighting for wins on the Viking Forest Products lumber trading floor in Minnesota.
“Our trading floor is very unique,” Darling said. “We have 60 traders, and probably 30-35 of them are former student-athletes in college. It’s very competitive, but kind of like a locker room. It’s kind of a unique way for me to still be competitive even though I’m not in athletics. I really love it.”
Darling is a commodity trader at Viking Forest, trading mostly OSB, plywood and dimensional lumber to buyers throughout the United States. He lives with his fiancé Danielle and their two dogs in Plymouth, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis.
Lessons learned while working toward Finals titles on the dirt roads of Ovid and national goals on the trails of Madison, Wis., are helping him find success again.
“My lessons I learned from running and the reward, whether good, great or OK, is that no matter the day, you have to go put in the effort and work, and it carries over to my work,” he said. “I now literally start over every day. We had a saying: ‘Win the day.’ And ‘Win the day’ kind of means something different for every day. I try to apply that to my life. It’s motivating to be successful every day.”
Friendly competition between teammates leading to greater success also carried over from cross country and track to the trading floor.
“We have a department where it feels almost like my cross country team in college,” he said. “One guy will put up 30 orders that day, and we’re all happy for that person. The synergy between the group is awesome. But it motivates me to be like, tomorrow that’s going to be me.”
Darling had spent his first three years out of Wisconsin running professionally and had coaching stops at Iona and Cal-Berkeley after that. But when the pandemic hit, he stepped away from coaching and made the move to trading.
That ended a spectacular career in the sport, which was actually second choice for most of Darling’s childhood.
Growing up, he was a top snowmobile racer, along with his brother.
“My first (high school) cross country race, I took seventh,” Darling said. “I didn’t know better, but that’s pretty good. My mom was like, ‘Seventh? You know, we’re used to first or second (in snowcross).’ We’re not a running family. I started at about 18 minutes in the 5K, and at the state meet I finished eighth and ran 16:13. I was like, ‘OK, maybe this is something I can really be good at.’”
It was at the end of his junior year, after winning his heat at the Nike Outdoor Nationals, that Darling turned his entire focus to running. By that time, he had already won two Division 3 cross country titles, two 3,200-meter titles and one 1,600 at MHSAA Finals.
He was training often, but knew he was undertrained because of the limitations on where and when he could run during mid-Michigan winters. Colleges knew it, too, and that led to a barrage of communication as soon as they were able to reach out.
“I probably had 150 of those (hand-written letters) sent to the house,” Darling said. “I would get two to three phone calls a night after July 1. It wasn’t like overwhelming, because I was pretty confident at that point where I wanted to go to school.”
Darling committed to Wisconsin on the day of the Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals his senior year. He also won his third Finals title that day with a then-Division 3 record time of 14:52. At the time, it was the third fastest time ever run in Michigan.
He would later win his second straight 1,600/3,200 double at the Track & Field Finals, running 8:58 in the 3,200 during the season, which was the 12th-best high school time in the country that year.
The choice to go to Wisconsin was based on his drive to be challenged as much as possible.
“I thought, ‘If I come into this room, I’m probably the eighth or ninth best runner in this room – maybe,’” Darling said. “I had such a great recruiting trip. I grew up in Ovid, and everything I ran there was pretty much dirt roads. Wisconsin has a lot of dirt trails, and I kind of loved that. I could run from our locker room and be on a trail in a mile, mile and a half.”
Darling’s collegiate career proved he had made the right decision. He was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year for the 2009 cross country season, and an All-American in 2010 and 2012. He was a three-time All-American in track, as well.
The Badgers also had massive team success during Darling’s tenure, winning a cross country national title in 2011, four Big Ten cross country titles and two Big Ten track & field titles.
Darling was surrounded by great runners throughout his time in Madison, including close friend Mohammed Ahmed, who finished fourth in the 10,000 meters at this Olympics, one spot behind another Michigan distance star, Grand Blanc’s Grant Fisher.
Watching the results of a distance boom he was a big part of has been a joy for Darling this summer.
“I thought I was pretty good, then watching these guys – it’s jealousy,” he said with a laugh. “And also, it’s just cool to see. Michigan is one of the best distance states men’s and women’s-wise. It’s great to see them not only be on the international level, but to have that success.”
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PHOTOS (Top) At left, Maverick Darling crosses the finish line during a race as an Ovid-Elsie senior in 2007; at right Darling poses with fiancé Danielle. (Middle) Darling rounds a turn during a high school race. (Below) Darling and Danielle enjoy a sunset over the water with her parents. (Photos courtesy of Maverick Darling.)
Jazwinski Clinches with Closing Kick, Powers Claims 1st Title Since 1999
November 1, 2025
BROOKLYN, Mich. — Whitehall junior Bobby Jazwinski had an unexpected guest watching the biggest moment of his cross country career.
The day before winning the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 individual championship, Jazwinski saw a familiar face in the family’s kitchen.
It was his sister Jessica, who won two Finals championships and set the girls Division 3 record of 17:08.8 in 2023.
The unusual thing about bumping into his sister in their own home was that she was supposed to still be at school at North Carolina State where she runs for the Wolfpack.
“She was making breakfast,” Jazwinski said. “I was like, ‘What are you doing here?’”
There was no way his sister was going to miss her little brother’s big moment, especially after he had to sit out last season because of the MHSAA transfer rule when he switched from Hart to Whitehall.
Their father slipped out Thursday night to pick up Jessica from the airport.
“I knew she was going to come back home for Thanksgiving and Christmas like usual, but my dad surprised me,” Jazwinski said. “He said he was going to do something in Grand Rapids and brought her home late at night.”
Jazwinski had plenty of family members from Michigan and out of state watching him race at MIS, but having his sister show up unexpectedly was a special gift.
“She’s such an inspiration to me,” he said. “She just kept giving me hugs and said that I’ve got this and to remember how hard I worked. Every time I started hurting, I just remembered how hard I worked over the summer and I didn’t want this to go to waste.”
Jazwinski won a kick to the finish against East Grand Rapids senior Jonah Workman, finishing in 15:07.1. Workman finished in 15:12.1.
Four runners were within 2.6 seconds of each other in the lead pack through two miles before it came down to Jazwinski and Workman at the end.
“My plan was to make a move about the two-mile mark, and I did,” Jazwinski said. “He was pretty much the only one who went with me. My coaches said, ‘Make a move when you get in the stadium; that’s who the contenders are for the championship.’ He was the only one with me I think. I was like, ‘OK, how bad do I really want this?’ I kept pushing through as much pain as I could.”
In the team race, Flint Powers Catholic won its first Finals championship since 1999 by a 98-106 margin over East Grand Rapids one year after not even reaching MIS.
The Chargers finished fourth at their Regional last year, sending Bryce Gross and Lennox Naswell to the Finals as individual qualifiers.
It was Naswell who led the charge Saturday, placing fifth in 15:24.7. Gross was 11th in 15:38.2, Tommy Beiter 30th in 16:00.3, Caleb Carignan 48th in 16:17.5 and Ryan Rathsburg 51st in 16:19.6.
“From the first day of the season, we knew everything doesn’t come easy,” Gross said. “We had a great year, but we learned how to fight from the (Saginaw Valley League meet). In our conference, we took a tough loss by a tie-breaker. From that we learned nothing’s given, not a single spot comes easy. This whole race, if you see a guy in front of you, you need to beat that kid.”
The Chargers’ coaching staff includes Leo Foley, who was a runner on Powers’ 1999 championship team. Head coach Dave Wolbert was an assistant coach 26 years ago.
PHOTOS (Top) Whitehall’s Robert Jazwinski III sprints toward the finish on the way to winning the Division 2 Final on Saturday. (Middle) Flint Powers Catholic’s Lennox Naswell surges through the closing stretch at MIS. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)