The GOAT's of El Paso Prep Cross Country (Boys)

Recently Milesplit came out with a top 50 runners of all time in TX list for track and XC. While I agree with the 3 picks they made from El Paso I'm not sure I'd agree on the order. My #1 in XC was not mentioned. As well,  unlike the Milesplit post , my list below is for XC ONLY.  I will attempt one for track at a later time.  In track it will be hard from a distance point of view to top the 1980 season of Sergio Oaxaca (Bel Air) who recorded 1:51 for 800, 3:51 for 1500, 4:08 for 1600, 8:23 for 3000 and 8:55 for 3200. For track and XC combined, I'd vote for Daniel Bernal who recorded an EP city record of 8:54.2 for 3200 and a 2 mile National Title (NBON) to go with a top 10 finish at NXN XC Nationals.

XC -while we can compare times on courses it is not as clear cut as the same course often runs different. One year it may be wet and muddy and another hard and fast. Place matters and here at the highest level is where I break it down. As well, this is based on the prep career. The NCAA/Pro level may be mentioned but is not factored.

 This is my opinion and I welcome friendly debate. Other may beg to differ.

The GOAT's of El Paso Prep Cross Country.

1) Bobby Aguirre- The EP Riverside Ranger had a prep XC career that was unrivaled. He was the District 2-5A champion 4 straight years (1980,81,82,83). He was the Region 1 Champion 3 years in a row (1981,82,83) after a breakthrough 2nd place in 1980.  His 14:39  in 1983 at Mae Simmons stood as the outright course record for 26 years and then as the fastest by an El Paso runner for 36 years. At the state level his career was incredible.  Bobby first broke through with a 6th place as a freshman and then won 2 Golds (1981 and 1983)  He was 2nd in 1982 in an epic battle with Jon Warren of Houston Cypress Creek. In 1981 he ran away from the great Carlos Quinones of Kileen who won state titles in the 800 and 3200 and later was a SWC champion at UT  In 1983, he absolutely dominated. He broke from the pack with one mile to go and defeated the field by 25 seconds over the last mile! The 2nd place finisher who he ran away from was Tony Martinez of San Antonio Churchill who ran 9:02 for 3200 and was a FL/Kinney Nationals finalist finishing 17th at the national meet. While Bobby did not compete in the post season the resounding victories he had over such top notch competition in 81 and 83 leave no doubt he was amongst the best prep XC runners in the US.

2- Alan Culpepper- The Coronado T-Bird has definitely had the best POST prep career of any El Paso  Track or XC athlete with not one but 2 Olympic Games on his resume. While at Coronado, Alan starred in XC. He was 3 times the District 1-5A and Region 1 Champion (88, 89 and 90) and twice the State Champion, (89 and 90). The highlight of his prep career in XC would be the 4th place finish recorded at FL/Kinney Nationals in 1990. He later starred at the University of Colorado and then as a pro for both Adidas and Nike. At the NCAA level he was a national champion at 5000 meters and as a pro he has won numerous USATF titles in both XC and Track. Twice an Olympian (00 in the 10,000 and 04 in the Marathon) he is one of the few select runners to record both a Sub 4 mile and a Sub 2:10 marathon.

3- Daniel Bernal- The Eastwood Trooper may have had the best combined XC/Track season of all in a great 2016/2017. In 2015 as a Junior he was the Region 1 champion in XC in a blazing 14:41 in an assault on Bobby Aguirre's long standing EP course record. He finished 36th at the NXN National meet, in 2016 despite finishing 3rd at the Region 1 meet he peaked at the right time to finish 10th at an extremely competitive NXN Nationals making Bernal and Culpepper the only 2 EP preps to record a top 10 finish at the National meets. Bernal is now starring at Furman University where his 54th place finish at the NCAA National Championships was the highest finish by an El Paso prep alum since Alan Culpepper in 1994. The future looks bright for Daniel.

(Bernal in blue at NXN)

4- Michael Abeyta-  the Hanks star is the best EP runner ever to not win a State XC title or qualify for National Meet. What an incredible career he had, if not for one Graydon Morris of Aledo then Abeyta would be a multi State Champion in XC (as he was in track).  Twice a state silver medalist he never finished worse than 6th at State in XC. His 2 silvers were about a split second behind one of the best ever from TX in Graydon Morris and he only missed a spot at Foot Locker Nationals in 2019 by the same margin. He also posted the fastest El Paso time ever on the Mae Simmons Region 1 course in Lubbock when he bettered Aguirre's time by 4 seconds with a blazing 14:35. With range from the 400 to XC it will be interesting to see him develop at the University of Oregon. 

Morris (L) and Abeyta in one of many epic battles

5- Brian Barraza- the El Paso Franklin star didn't win the Region or State titles but ran at very high level for both in 2012. His 14:52 at Region 1 was, at the time, EP #2 and he ran a strong 5th at State. As well, he didn't run any of the 2 major post season Nationals in Foot Locker or NXN but he did finish 2nd at USATF Junior Nationals to Estevan De La Rosa who was a top 5 finisher at NXN. After a great collegiate career at the University of Houston he is now a professional runner for the famed Tinman Elite club and represents Adidas.  Stay tuned as the best is still to come from Brian.

Brian as a pro- pic lifted from his Twitter

Honorable Mentions:

Edwin Gomez- the San Elizario runner qualified for the 2018 NXN National Finals after winning the 4A State title in XC as a freshman in 2017. He has a season to bump up here

Tony Zuiniga - The El Paso Tiger was the 1972 state champion and later an XC NCAA All American at UTEP

Ruben Dominguez- The Austin Panther was the 1973 Texas State XC Champ

Kenny Schmidt- The Austin Panther was the 1977 Texas State XC Champ

There are honestly so many others that could go in here, many are covered in my Instagram

National Finalists:

1980- Alfredo Trejo- Bowie-KInney/Foot Locker-20th

1988-Michael Lara- Ysleta-Kinney/Foot Locker-26th 

1990-Alan Culpepper-Coronado-Kinney/Foot Locker- 4th

2015-Daniel Bernal- Eastwood-NXN- 36th

2016-Daniel Bernal -Eastwood- NXN- 10th

2018- Edwin Gomez- San Elizario- NXN - 84th

I will attempt the EP Girls list soon as well as the Track lists. For more on Bobby Aguirre please refer to my post from 2008

http://alltracktalk.blogspot.com/2008/11/bobby-aguirre-tx-high-school-cross.html

For my daily feed of El Paso greats please follow at :

https://www.instagram.com/elpasoareadistance/

Eastwood starts 2013 strong/Dellinger Invitational

There were lots of good things going on this past weekend in the middle of the XC season for 2013. For starters, Eastwood has picked off where they did last year and are undefeated midway through the season. They have run the table on the local competition and have just returned from repeating their winning performance of last year at the prestigious McNeil Invitational in Round Rock, TX. Brian Casillas (below) has been the leader that he was expected to be. Jose Silva (the other returner from last years South #4 squad) has shined as well. Last year I mentioned the culture change at Eastwood that spread down to their JV. The JV last year was the best team in El Paso other than Eastwood's varsity and those kids have stepped up to the plate. At mid-season they have ranked as high as TX#4. The rest of the state may have seen this as a rebuilding year but people close to the program could have sensed this. The usual challengers await at Region 1 but this year has a lot more uncertainty that keeps this year up for grabs. Defending state champion Southlake Carroll is vulnerable. They ran without Connor Hendrickson  (a 9:10 3200 runner) at Nike South and were well beaten. Lewisville Marcus who many may have pegged the favorite if SLC faltered has yet to run JR Logan Hendrix (5th at Region 1 last year) and without him, same story. So Eastwood is in the same position as the last couple, just need to get to Lubbock first and then pack them in within 40-45 seconds from 1-5. Large gaps between scoring runners will be a killer.

Eastwood's Brian Casillas 

As I am nowhere near El Paso (or Texas) I did the next best thing and went out to the Bill Dellinger Invitational in Eugene, just a bit south of me to see the Oregon men and women run on their home turf. The men's race had UW's Aaron Nelson break the field and put a good distance on the field. Close to 4 miles in, the chase pack which included Oregon ex Trevor Dunbar and current Ducks Parker Stinson and Edward Cheserek, looked out of it. Cheserek the decided he had enough left and dropped the others and went after Nelson before just falling short 23:54 to 23:59. I had to do a double take at the mid pack early in the race when I thought I spotted Alan Webb running comfortably and talking to runners. It turns out Webb is an Assistant Coach at Portland State and was pacing his group through. He picked it up around 5K and ran a hard last 2 miles to finish a very respectable 24:45

The Chase Pack

Alan Webb mid race

The women's race was the highlight however. It was announced at the start that WA high school star Alexa Efraimson was in the race. She went right with the leaders and never strayed from there. Boise State all-american Emma Bates was the only one to keep pace at the end and then even tried to pull away to no avail. Efraimson used her 1500 meter closing speed to lose the gap and win an exciting finish, both ran 16:35. An additional highlight for me was meeting the one and only Bill Dellinger himself. Great way to spend 2 hours on a beautiful Saturday.

High Schooler Alexa Efraimson (WA) kicks down Emma bates

With the one and only Bill Dellinger  (R) and Vin Lanana (L)

I hope to blog more frequently here and look forward to getting out to NXN here. Can't close without mentioning the great starts to the XC college season by A&M's Isaac Spencer (EP Austin) and Houston's super frosh Brian Barazza (EP Franklin).