Ricardo Mendoza returned to UTRGV as an assistant coach for the track & field/cross country program on Oct. 11, 2023.
2026 Outdoor
N Vanee Anchike qualified for the NCAA West First Round in both the 800 and 1,500, and the women’s 800 group finished the season ranked 29th nationally in the TFRI.
2026 Indoor
Anchike was named SLC Newcomer of the Year after earning silver medals in the 800, the mile and the distance medley relay.
Kailey Salazar,
Lilliana Guerrero and sophomore
Mia Picazo gave the women’s team a reliable mid-distance core that helped push it into the national top 40.
2025 Cross Country
The women placed third at the Southland Conference (SLC) Championships, the program’s best conference finish in 15 years, and put three runners on the All-SLC team: N Vanee Anchike (ninth, SLC Newcomer of the Year), Faith Cruz (eighth, team-best) and Kailey Salazar (14th). That trio led the women to 14th of 24 teams at the NCAA South Central Regional, the program’s best finish there since 2019. All five of the women’s scorers lowered their personal bests, and Anchike’s 6K times rank seventh and 10th in program history. The men took fifth at the SLC Championships, the program’s best championship placing in five seasons, with five runners setting personal bests. Nirmit Dahiya led the team with a 24th-place 8K that tied for the fourth-fastest in program history.
2025 Outdoor
Senior
Samantha Gonzalez won the SLC 3,000-meter steeplechase title and scored in the 5,000. She set outdoor program records in the 1,500 and steeplechase and finished her career with six of the top 10 steeplechase times in program history.
Kailey Salazar ran sub-2:10 in the 800 twice (her previous best was 2:10.81) and won a conference medal.
2025 Indoor
Kailey Salazar won the SLC 800 title with a program record,
Lilliana Guerrero took bronze and
Estrella Medellin placed seventh, giving UTRGV 18 points in the event. Salazar and Guerrero combined for six of the top 10 indoor 800 times in program history, with Medellin adding a seventh. Freshman
Mia Picazo set the program record in the 1,000 and Gonzalez set the mile record.
2024 Cross Country
The women won the OLLU Classic, their first meet win in at least 20 years, with
Samantha Gonzalez earning her first individual victory and improving her 6K best by nearly a minute and a half. The men placed second at the same meet. At the SLC Championships, the women took sixth and the men ninth, both teams’ best conference finishes in four seasons. Gonzalez was 10th and earned Second Team All-Conference honors, and
Abraham Morales led the men in 22nd. At the NCAA South Central Regional, Gonzalez and Cruz each had career-best finishes, and Morales and
Kevin Cardenas ran 10K personal bests.
2024 Outdoor
Junior
Samantha Gonzalez and freshman
Kailey Salazar were among the season’s standouts. Salazar ran a late-season 800 personal best of 2:10.81.
2024 Indoor
Gonzalez led the women’s distance group and ran a lifetime-best 5:07.04 in the mile at the WAC meet.
Abraham Morales lowered his 800 time throughout the season and led the men’s distance group with a personal best in the mile at conference.
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.
