Alex Canales won his division as a freshman at the Meet of Champions, one of the most elite cross-country meets in the Rio Grande Valley.
But he didn’t realize what division he was in. The Rio Grande City runner had been competing on the JV squad all season, but his coach decided to see what he could do and bumped him up and into the meet’s varsity division, one step below the elite division, set aside for all the top runners.
“I was surprised and jumping up and down with the rest of the guys,” he said. “Then my coaches came over and said, ‘You’re ready.’”
That day was a major step toward Friday, when Canales signed his letter of intent to continue his athletic and educational careers with UTRGV and compete at the Division I level.
“I’m really excited for this moment,” Canales said. “I’ve been waiting for this moment since I made varsity, patiently waiting and now I want to show my family I can do this. This is the next thing for the next chapter in my life.”
Rio Grande City head coach Joe Ramirez said the immediate expectations weren’t too high for Canales heading into high school.
“He wasn’t the top dog coming out of middle school and we weren’t really anticipating him to do much off the bat,” Ramirez said. “But as the season started we noticed he was doing good and getting better so we bumped him up.
“We had a really strong team that year and won that meet, then our manager came over and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to come see this. Alex is winning the varsity race. We ran over to watch him and he had broken away from the pack and won by like 30 seconds. It was unbelievable.”
That year, Rio Grande City won the district title and ran all the way to fifth place as a team in the state meet. Ramirez had three DI runners sign after that season.
As a sophomore, Canales took over as the team’s top runner. He ended up going to the state meet during three of his four high school seasons.
“He went with his team as a freshman but as a sophomore he went on his own,” Ramirez said. “It’s great to go with the team, but you always want to know if you can do it individually. He did.”
Canales credits his coaches and his teammates during his freshman year for helping him go from good to great.
“He asked me what he needed to do to take it to the next level and I told him to watch what Brandon Gracia did,” Ramirez said. “He took him under his wing.”
“Brandon’s been a guy I looked up to since my freshman year and still look up to him as a big brother,” Canales said. “After he graduated, he would still go on runs with me and it’s awesome having him around. My teammates helped me get to where I am today.”
Canales said he always has had a passion for running, since he was in elementary school. He still gets coached by his elementary coach, Omar Treviño.
Canales hit the 15-minute, 59-second mark as a personal record during his junior year at the Meet of Champions, a meet he clearly has an affinity toward. He also registered PRs in both the 1,600 (4:36) and 3,200 (9:36).
“Once those other kids took him under their wings, the sky was the limit for him and he was on pace to do great things,” Ramirez said. “It’s not easy to go DI.”