Personal bests, top performances and collegiate recognition shaped the story of Isaac Alonzo’s senior cross country season.
A dual track and field and cross country athlete, Alonzo led the way for the Texas men’s cross country team throughout the season, finishing first out of Texas runners in all but one competition.
“He’s got coachability,” said men’s cross country and distance coach Greg Metcalf. “He is a great communicator, he listens. It’s one thing to talk about things, but Isaac does them … You could tell on day one this season he was firing on all cylinders and he was the very best version of Isaac Alonzo I’ve ever seen.”
In the opening event of the season, Alonzo contributed to the Texas sweep of the Stormy Seas Opener 5k with a third-place finish. He then went on to finish seventh overall in the Cowboy Jamboree amongst 195 runners. In the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals, Alonzo ran a new personal best in the 8k to finish 32nd in a field that included some of the best teams and runners in the nation.
Alonzo broke his 8k record once again in the SEC Championships, propelling Texas to a fourth-place finish out of 14 competing schools and earning himself All-SEC First Team honors in the process.
In what was his team’s final race of the season at the NCAA South Central Regionals, Alonzo put together the best 10k run of his collegiate career. He helped Texas challenge Tulane for the second automatic qualifying spot in the NCAA Championships and ultimately qualified for Saturday’s 10K competition in Madison, Wisconsin, individually.
“In true elite athlete fashion, he has built a crescendo from the first day of practice until today,” Metcalf said. “Every race got a little better … I keep telling him, ‘That’s the best race I’ve ever seen you run.’ And last weekend (at the regionals) was no different.”
While 31 teams qualify for the championships, the NCAA also admits 38 individuals to also compete in the cross country final. So while Texas did not qualify for a team spot, Alonzo secured an individual auto-bid as a top-four finisher in his region.
On Saturday, in the frigid Wisconsin conditions, Alonzo crossed the finish line 128th out of 252 runners. At the 5k halfway mark, he ranked 58th and posted a time faster than his personal best at that distance. Alonzo finished 23rd amongst the individual runners who did not have a stake in the championship team standings.
Although the fourth chapter of Alonzo’s collegiate cross country career came to an end, the track and field season begins soon, with the indoor season starting next month and outdoor following it.
Still, Metcalf does not think this spring will be the end of Alonzo’s running career.
“I believe that there is more running for him after this,” Metcalf said. “There is more that he would like to accomplish. When he graduates and finishes up in June hopefully at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon, he is the best athlete in Texas history at both 5,000 and 10,000 meters.”
