Ricardo Mendoza returned to UTRGV as an assistant coach for the track & field/cross country program on Oct. 11, 2023.
Mendoza competed in cross country and indoor and outdoor track & field for the Vaqueros from 2016-2022. He racked up six medals at Western Athletic Conference (WAC) meets throughout his career. He was the bronze medalist at the WAC Indoor Championships in the 800 in 2017. In 2018, he took silver in the 800 and bronze with the distance medley relay at the indoor conference championships, and claimed two silver medals in the 800 and 4x400-meter relay outdoors. Mendoza capped his career with the silver medal at the 2022 WAC Outdoor Championships in the 800.
He was a two-time All-Western Athletic Conference (WAC) First Team honoree in both indoor (2017, 2018) and outdoor track & field (2018, 2022), and earned All-WAC Second Team recognition once indoors (2019) and twice outdoors (2017, 2021), all in the 800-meter run. He garnered two WAC Track Athlete of the Week awards during the 2021 outdoor season.
Mendoza is a men’s indoor track & field program record holder in the distance medley relay, helping the team run 10:09.31 in 2020 to take the top spot. He is also ranked third in the 800 and ninth in the mile in the indoor record books. Mendoza is in the men’s cross country record books, too, ranking eighth in the 6K race standings and ninth in the 4-mile race top times.
In addition to his abundant success on the course, Mendoza was a respectable student. He earned his bachelor’s in sociology with a minor in kinesiology and completed a master’s in educational technology with a technology leadership certificate in 2022. Mendoza was an eight-time athletic director’s honor roll qualifier and was an Academic All-WAC honoree in 2022. He is a first generation graduate and a La Joya High School alumni.
