RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The rapid rise of Sahr Daniel Siaffa, a junior on The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's (UTRGV) track & field team, is rooted in ambition and faith.  
 
Track is fairly new to him. Siaffa, born and raised most of his life in Sierra Leone in West Africa, was a soccer player first. In 2019 his family moved to Houston, and in 2021, as a senior at Elsik High School, he gave track a shot after missing a soccer tryout.  
 
"I moved here and all I knew was soccer. I started doing track for fun. Then I started growing and getting better with my times and I made it all the way to this level," Siaffa said. "Still today I'm so fascinated with how everything played out. It's by the grace of God that I'm here today." 
 
"Here" is gearing up to race at the NCAA West Preliminary in the men's 400-meter hurdles quarterfinals. Siaffa is ranked 37^th of the 48 declared student-athletes in the event with his personal-best time of 51.53@. He'll run in the fifth of six heats starting at 8:20 p.m. at John McDonnell Field in Fayetteville, Ark. A top-24 finish will advance him to the quarterfinals Friday at 7:25 p.m. 
 
This is only the second year Siaffa has been a hurdler. Out of high school, he earned a spot on the Cloud County Community College track & field team. He competed primarily in the 400-meter dash and on various relays, including the 4x400-meter relay and distance medley relay (DMR). Siaffa qualified for the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Indoor Championships with the DMR in 2022. 
 
Siaffa made his collegiate debut in the 400 hurdles on March 25, 2023, earning a second-place finish at the Mark A. Phillips Tiger Invite – after teaching himself how to do the event in the offseason before his sophomore year. 
 
"I told my friends, 'I'm going to try that event, it looks kind of fun.' But when I talked with my coach and said I want to try this event, he said, 'No you're going to injure yourself.' So I let it be, but when I went for the summer break I started doing it on my own," Siaffa recalled. "I got back to school and kept trying to convince him to let me try, and before our outdoor season he let me have one practice and then I tried it." 
 
In his first hurdle race, he ran 54.88. Five weeks later, he ran 52.46 to take third at the 2023 NJCAA Region VI Championships, qualifying for the NJCAA Div. I Outdoor Championships. He lowered his time to 52.41 and finished ninth at the championship meet.
 
"I didn't know about all the techniques and stuff when I started. When I got to UTRGV and started working with [assistant hurdles] coach Antwon Hicks, I was like, 'Wow this is more complicated than I thought,'" Siaffa said. 
 
Technique and stride pattern are two key things Siaffa has worked on over the course of his first year at UTRGV. His career in the Valley didn't start out the best – he was injured at his first meet and missed the entire 2024 indoor season. But he worked his way back and put together quite an outdoor campaign. 
 
Siaffa ran 53.38 in his first meet back, taking fifth at the Kirk Baptiste Spring Break Invitational. He added the 110-meter hurdles to his repertoire and has competed with the 4x400 relay. There were ups and downs throughout the season, but it all culminated with a strong outing at the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Outdoor Championships. Siaffa ran a personal-best 52.25 in prelims to advance to finals, then set a new PB in 51.42 to take fifth and secure his spot at the NCAA West Preliminary. His best time ranks second in program history. 
 
"Indoor season didn't go as I planned. I kept trying my best every day and God was the main reason for my success. My teammates kept pushing me, kept sending me good messages of encouragement to stay strong. I'm really grateful and the season has been amazing to see myself get this far. I wasn't expecting this, but again, God made it possible for me," Siaffa said. 
 
As proud as Siaffa is of his growth and accomplishments in track, the sport itself is not why he chose to continue his career at UTRGV. The soft-spoken junior is extremely dedicated to his studies, pursuing a career as a mechanical engineer. He is working on a Bachelor of Multidisciplinary Studies with minors in computer science, pure mathematics, and cyber-security. 
 
He heard about UTRGV through former Cloud teammate and current Vaqueros teammate Emmanuel Wanga. When Wanga did his visit to the RGV, he took pictures of the engineering buildings and gathered information for his friend. Knowing the university had good science and engineering programs was important and got Siaffa interested. 
 
Wanga also got Siaffa in touch with head track & field/cross country coach Shareese Hicks, and her "person before athlete" approach sealed the deal. 
 
"The main thing that got me down here was that, when Coach Hicks talked to me, she was more concerned about me as a person and not only about track," Siaffa explained. "I talked to coaches who only cared how are you doing in track? She was way more than that. She cared about my well-being. That's what I was looking for, someone that actually really cares about me and not only what I do. Then Emmanuel signed and I was like, cool, we're going there together. I'm really happy I made this decision." 
 
Balancing a challenging degree plan with the responsibilities of being a student-athlete results in a rigorous schedule for Siaffa. He wakes up at 8 a.m. on weekdays, then has class from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. He'll have lunch and get ready to practice from 1-3 p.m., and he has weights from 4-5 p.m. on select days. He has evening classes from 6-7 p.m. and on Mondays he does bible study with friends. He'll have dinner, do homework, go to sleep, and do it all over again the next day. 
 
Siaffa likes having his days planned out and organized. The balancing act has led to personal growth that he's thankful for, and doing well away from track boosts his confidence when it comes to the sport. 
 
"I like the routine. The way I'm seeing myself balance all these things makes me feel more intellectual and more mature. Now I can handle much more of a load than I thought I could," Siaffa said. "I feel like balancing in school gives me confidence on the track, but I still get nervous on the track. It's the butterflies before races, especially when I'm on the line waiting for the gun. But once the gun goes off, all the butterflies go away, and you just have to do what you have to do at that point." 
 
Siaffa knows what he has to do when the gun goes off in Fayetteville – trust his training, his faith, himself, and leave it all on the track. His parents, though they don't know much about track, will be supporting him. His career is inspiring his little sister, who, since the first time she saw him run, asks him often about track and is getting interested in the sport herself. He'll be motivated by them, his coaches, his teammates and friends when he settles into the blocks and gets ready to go. 
 
"I'm going to give my best and give all that I've got and keep trying as I always do," Siaffa said. "I don't talk a lot about what I'm going to do or what time I'm going to run, I just go and do my best because I know God has already planned what he has planned for me." 

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