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/

Coming soon

Looking back here a bit, I would have to say that my absolute favorite entry is the one on Bobby Aguirre. He will always be one of the greatest ever to run prep XC in El Paso history, without argument. I also enjoy popping in with entries on my alma mater Eastwood as they returned to a distance program to be reckoned with. I have decided for a bit to focus on these type of entries. I want to bring some more EP Track/XC history to light and explore some more of the past greats.
I will still continue to go to big meets out here and chime in on them. I've been very fortunate to see so many top runners compete in person. Many, like Lukas Verzbicas, Mary Cain and Alexa Efraimson I've been able to see on their way up. But, the reality is there is no shortage of coverage on their accomplishments.
Coming soon, I will have an entry/interview with one of El Paso's best. 2 time State Champion in 1973/74 in both XC and the Mile, Ruben Dominguez of El Paso Austin. I will expand out from there.

Have we lost our sense of community?

Here we are at the start of another Fall XC season. One thing that I have wanted to touch on for some time is what I perceive as a loss of the sense of community that we all enjoyed growing up. I have heard stories of coaches, grown adults, actually talking "trash" and making derogatory remark towards other schools runners and coaches. Huh??!! How and when did this become acceptable?
Growing up, El Paso was an absolute hotbed for XC talent. The amount of team and individual state medals won is staggering. We ran hard with the aim to win, but we also wanted our neighbors to experience the same success. Teams who had been to the big show (State Meet) mentored younger teams, pulled them along. My team, Eastwood, got a lot of good advice from defending Regional and State champs El Paso High before we went on to win our own Regional title. I'd like to think we did the same thing for Hanks when they succeeded us as Regional Champs.
Everyone was friends, many still are 3 decades later. I had a respect for my coach that was only topped by the respect I had for my own father. He was that important a person in my life. We also had great respect for, and were shown the same respect by, other school coaches. Everyone looked out for everyone. We raced each other hard week after week on Saturday morning and then went to the same gatherings on a Saturday night. Our XC team was more likely to get together with other XC runners than non-runners from our own school. This group of YISD State qualifiers in 1984 were all very familiar with each other, on and off the course.

I think it was this sense of community that led to much of the success that was experienced. At the Region and State levels, prior to the meet, all of the runners came out for the "El Paso!" chant. It was loud and in way, a show of force. It meant something and it served notice to other cities teams that they had to deal with us as a whole. Many times they did not deal to well.
I guess all that I'm saying, is, respect each other as friends and rivals, but most importantly, representatives of your community. I hope that some of the current generation of El Paso XC runners reads this and tells me I am wrong, that it is the same. If not, band together and make me wrong.

Bobby Aguirre-TX High School Cross Country Great

As we head to the Texas State Cross Country Championships this weekend, I find myself wanting to give due to one of the all-time greats in TX Cross Country history, Bobby Aguirre of El Paso Riverside. Bobby had the misfortune of having a tremendous 4 year career in an era that doesn't have a lot of info online. If you visit the UIL website the archives start in 1984. Bobby's last championship was 1983. I'd like to add a little online history for this great runner. People often look back at Reuben Reina, Alan Culpepper, Brad Hauser and Colby Lowe as they should, but few accomplished in a 4 year span what Aguirre did.
Aguirre won the Dist 2-5a Title 4 years in a row. He won the Region 1 title 3 years in a row, after a 2nd place finish his Freshman year. His Region 1 Record at Mae Simmons Park stood for 24 years until Colby Lowe broke it last year. He was a 2 time State Champion (1981,1983) a 2nd place finisher in 1982 and finished 4th as a Freshman in 1980. The most impressive race to me was winning his Sophomore year over the great Carlos Quinones (Killeen). Quinones was a tremendous talent who finished his career with Track Pr's of 1:50, 4:08 and 9:10. Carlos was the 1981 State Champ in the 800 and the 1982 State Champ in the 3200. He had range. Bobby was coming off a 4th place finish as a Freshman (to Quinones' 3rd) . There is a story (reliable sources tell me it is true) that Bobby had a shirt made that said State Champ on it. Quinones approached him and asked him, "When were you State Champ?" Bobby replied, "I will be today" Quinones asked him, "What race are you in?" Bobby replied, "The one you're in!" Arrogant? A little, but he backed it up as he won the meet in 15:10. Quinones was 3rd.
His Junior year he finished 2nd to the great Jon Warren of Houston Cypress Creek. Bobby said he played the race wrong tactically , but losing to Warren was nothing to be ashamed of. Jon Warren later ran a sub-4 mile and was an Olympic Trials qualifier in the Marathon.
His senior year, 1983, Aguirre absolutely dominated the race. At the top of the first hill, he was dead last. He told us (my team at the meet) he was going to do this. He wanted to pass each and every runner. I was shocked when he went by me. He wasn't last long and took the lead at the 1st mile, he then backed off to save for the end. At the 2 mile mark he raced by Tony Martinez (SA Churchill) and Augie Flores (SA Burbank) and ran that last mile 25 seconds faster than anyone else as he defeated Martinez by that margin!! Tony (who later ran for Rice) was no jogger, he had a 9:02 3200 to his name.
Bobby never went to any of the post-season meets but I think he could have really made a name for himself at Kinney (now known as Footlocker). After losing to Aguirre at State, Martinez went to the Kinney Nationals finishing just a little outside 30 seconds of winner Matt Guisto. Bobby had so much left after winning that last State Title I think he could have beaten Martinez by the same margin at least.
His Track credentials were not on the same level as XC. He did finish 2nd in the 1983 State Meet in the 3200 (9:13) and he did not run Track in 1984 (Senior year). Real life responsibilities came way to young for Aguirre and he was never really heard from again after winning the 83 XC crown. Reuben Reina started his 3200/1600 meter title streak that Spring, but I think he would have had a real fight on his hands with Bobby. For the record,Tony Martinez took 2nd in that years 3200.
The runners who , over the years, had the same type of career as Aguirre usually went on to successful college careers and some even beyond college. It is worth noting that future Olympians Reuben Reina and Alan Culpepper (who both won USATF XC Championships) never ran as fast on the old Georgetown course as Aguirre. Reina's senior year he set a Footlocker (then known as Kinney) course record that stands to this day.
Bobby never had the opportunity to run in college. Some real heavy life changes at a very young age prevented that. I know of these, but certainly feel it is not my place to discuss them on a public forum. A lot of this information came firsthand as I was lucky enough to room with him at the 1983 Regional and State meets. I personally think he would have been great at the NCAA level, possibly moving up to the longer races in Track and running the 8 and 10K's in Cross Country. I hope at least 1 Texas Cross Country fan read's this and comes away knowing of a great runner they didn't know of before.

Nationally Ranked El Pasoan's (50's-80's)

My roots in Track and XC lie in El Paso,TX. The most notable Track athlete to come out of the city would be Alan Culpepper ,however, there have been many others over the years that put up some great performances. El Paso was not unlike any other city in the sense that High School Track and XC got very little media coverage. I have kept a list that goes back to 1956 for performances by El Paso Track athletes who cracked the National Lists. Some years the lists were 10 deep, some 25 and some years 50 deep. Some great times/marks may have been left out because of this. I only have the mens lists as well. I have been searching for the women's rankings as I would love to put those up as well.
There were some great ones to remember. Sergio Oaxaca being ranked in the top 20 Nationally in 4 events in 1980! There were 2 top 10 ranked 300 Meter Hurdlers in the same District (1-5a) in 1983. Eastwood High had 2 Athletes ranked top 10 in 1981. Dennis Deloach of Irvin ranked top 10 3 consecutive years.
I hope to put up 1990 through 2008 soon but the age of the internet makes those years a bit easier to find. I hope some young Track Athletes in El Paso can look back at these marks and find inspiration to top them.


National Rank Year Name School Event Performance

#8 1956 Charley Rosemond EP Ysleta 880 Yards 1:55.5

#25 1958 Sal Rocha EP Austin Discus 164'2"

#36 1961 Dick Vogin (sp?) EP Burges 100 Yard dash 9.6

#12 1961 Eric Salmanca EP Jefferson 440 Yards 47.6

#18 1967 Bob Foelpoe (sp?) EP Austin 440 Yards 47.8

#25 1968 Herb Miller EP Jefferson 100 Yard Dash 9.4

#12 1968 Pryor Nunn (sp?) EP Coronado Discus 180'8"

#4 1970 Dennis Deloach EP Irvin High Jump 6'10"

#4 1971 Dennis Deloach EP Irvin High Jump 6'10"

#3 1971 Relay Team EP Andress Sprint Medley 3:30.4

#32 1972 Troy Squires EP Coronado 100 Yard Dash 9.6

#31 1972 Danny Ayub EP Coronado 120 Yard Hurdles 14.0

#8 1972 Dennis Deloach EP Irvin High Jump 6'10"

#40 1973 Joe DeLaCerda EP Irvin High Jump 6'8.5"

#22 1973 Relay Team EP Coronado Sprint Medley 3:32.3

#26 1973 Relay Team EP Bel Air Sprint Medley 3:32.9

#29 1973 Relay Team EP Austin Distance Medley 10:27.8

#25 1974 Joe DeLaCerda EP Austin High Jump 6'10"

#15 1975 Curtis Collier EP Burges 330 Yard Hurd. 37.7

#28 1975 Relay Team EP Burges Mile Relay 3:18.4

#17 1976 Bruce Frazier Fabens 440 Yards 47.8

#14 1978 Kenny Schmidt EP Austin 880 Yards 1:52.0

#24 1980 Sergio Oaxaca EP Bel Air 800 Meters 1:51.55

#2 1980 Sergio Oaxaca EP Bel Air 1500 Meters 3:51.25

#19 1980 Sergio Oaxaca EP Bel Air Mile/1600 M 4:10.4/4:08.9

#7 1980 Sergio Oaxaca EP Bel Air 3000 Meters 8:23.34

#6 1980 Jerry Bullitt EP Andress Shot Put 64'1/4"

#4 1981 Tony Tolson EP Austin 400 Meter Dash 46.74

#9 1981 Toby Bell EP Eastwood Pole Vault 16'0

#8 1981 Jim Jordan EP Eastwood Shot Put 64'3"

#5 1981 Jim Jordan EP Eastwood Discus 195'8

#6 1983 Dale Laverty EP Andress 300 Met. Hurd. 36.84

#9 1983 Ernest Vigil EP Irvin 300 Met. Hurd. 37.09

#8 1983 Paul Benavides EP Burges Pole Vault 16'0

#7 1987 Dino Napier EP Irvin 200 Meters 20.90

#9 1987 David Medlin EP Hanks 3000 Meters 8:27.66

#5 1988 Dino Napier EP Irvin 200 Meters 20.83

#4 1988 Gilbert Contreras El Paso High 800 Meters 1:49.8

#6 1988 Gilbert Contreras El Paso High 1500 Meters 3:51.9

No 2008 Olympics for Alan Culpepper

So I planned on starting this Blog with plans of discussing the amazing High School performances we have seen in the past couple months. Last night Christine Babcock (CA) ran a 4:16.42 in the 1500 for #1 all-time. Saturday night at the Midwest Distance Gala ( just a few miles away from me) Rob Finnerty (MN) ran a 4:01.09 Mile for #7 all-time. 

We can't forget the CA State Meet with the greatest High School same day double ever by German Fernandez (4:00.29 1600/8:34.23 3200), the Girls 3200 with Jordan Hasay (9:52.13) edging out Laurynne Chetelat (9:52.51) for #'s 2 & 3 all-time. Christine Babcock destroyed the field that day in the Girls 1600 with the #2 all-time performance (4:33.82).

Earlier in the year our local star Chris Derrick ran the #6 all-time,(#1 HS only) 5000 in 13:55.96.

I will come back to all these amazing performances later as we get ready for Nike Outdoor Nationals. No doubt some more great times will be recorded.

What I want to discuss is the announcement that Alan Culpepper will not be competing in the upcoming Olympic Trials where he was slated to run the 10,000. Alan, if successful, would have made his 3rd Olympic Team. Culpepper was one of a very select few individuals to have run both a Sub 4 Mile and a Sub 2:10 Marathon. I grew up in the same city as Alan (El Paso, TX) and have long followed his career very closely, always rooting for the guy. The sport is losing a class act as it appears he is retiring. Please read the article from the Rocky Mountain News.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/13/olympics-now-runner-up-in-alan-culpeppers-life/