As the sun rises, Aleksandr Acuna runs to the win at the 2023 Marcus Coach T Inv.
Coming in at the No. 5 spot in this year's preseason 6A cross-country rankings is Denton Braswell's Aleksandr Acuna. Acuna is the first athlete to feature on this list who wasn't accompanied by a team at last year's state meet.
Yesterday, we posted Adelynn Rodriguez and Danny Aiden Torres both from the same school (El Paso Eastwood) who made our top preseason teams. Now we have Acuna joining schoolmate Macy Wingard as the other pair from the same school with both at Denton Braswell.
Acuna marks a nice middle ground in the contrast between some of the runners featured in this series. We've had guys like Caden Leonard and Benjamin Montgomery who immediately came into high school and shined. At the same time, we've also featured runners with a longer road to success like Aidan Torres.
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Acuna's carved out nothing short of a remarkable career characterized by consistent improvements in his running, even though he may not have the team support that the other guys featured on this list have. He's proven to be a classic 1600m, 3200m, 5000m guy and he's shown to be elite at every distance. So, let's dive into what makes Acuna the elite talent that he is and how he stacks up against the rest of the state's top individuals.
As mentioned, Acuna marks an interesting middle ground in some of the development trends we've seen amongst the state's top runners heading into this year. He didn't come out of the gate contending at the state meet his freshman year, but he also didn't run times that would make you think he'd never get to this point.
Acuna crosses the finish line first at the 2023 Lovejoy Fall Festival
Photo Credit: Jessie McCabe/MileSplit TX
Acuna came into high school and gave himself a great foundation to build on, running under the 17:00 mark four times his freshman year. He finished his freshman season with a personal best of 16:11.43 and qualified for the notoriously competitive UIL 1A-6A Region 1 Championship where he finished 34th as a freshman. These consistent and respectable performances gave Acuna a great foundation to build on, and that's exactly what he did heading into his freshman track season.
Acuna competed over both 1600m and 3200m in his freshman track season, but his more impressive performances came over 3200m that year. He cracked the 10:00 barrier in his second race ever, running 9:54.37 at the Lewisville Invitational and he continued to build on this as the season went on. He dipped under ten minutes in three of the four remaining races that year and came away with a new personal best of 9:35.36 at the area meet where he narrowly missed out on qualifying for regionals.
He had a less consistent season when it came to the 1600m which is understandable as a freshman as faster races can be tougher to find your rhythm in. That being said, he continued to build a solid foundation for improvement as he came away from his freshman year with a personal best of 4:31.51. This meant Acuna would end his freshman campaign with personal bests of 4:31.51 over 1600m, 9:35.36 over 3200m, and 16:11.43 over 5000m. Understandably, this built a quiet anticipation surrounding how well he'd perform in his second cross-country season and Acuna delivered.
Acuna came out of the gates hot, beginning his sophomore campaign with a twenty-second personal best of 15:51.80 which he ran at the Plano ISD Invitational. He'd follow this up with a slew of great performances which gradually dipped lower below the 16:00 barrier each week. These performances included a 15:40.30 which came at the McKinney Boyd Bronco Stampede, a 15:33.68 which came at the Braswell Little D Invitational, and a particularly impressive 15:26.70 which earned him a top fifteen finish at the competitive and tough Chile Pepper Festival.
Acuna was third at the 2023 UIL Region 1-6A Championships
Photo Credit: Gabriel Nieland/MileSplit TX
All of these performances were impressive, however, the best was yet to come for Acuna. His best performance of the season came at the UIL 6A-District 5 meet where Acuna beat a host of talented runners to take victory in a staggering new personal best of 15:09.20 as only a sophomore. Acuna would go on to place 12th at the regional meet in 15:49.10 and qualify for the state meet where he'd end up finishing 40th in his first appearance in Round Rock.
Heading into his sophomore track season, expectations were high for Acuna as he'd established himself as an elite athlete thanks to his performances in the fall. However, despite his stark improvements in the fall, he failed to mirror this in the spring as he didn't improve his 3200m personal best and only marginally improved his 1600m personal best from 4:31.51 down to 4:30.29. While this was undoubtedly disappointing for Acuna, the results that would soon await him in the fall made this track season a simple afterthought.
Coming into the fall, it would've been understandable if Acuna's confidence had taken a hit due to his disappointing track season. However, his results to open the season would suggest the exact opposite. Acuna flew onto the scene with a huge 14:58.60 personal best at the Marcus Coach T Invitational where he ran away with the win against a strong field of state qualifiers.
The following week, Acuna would have his best race of the season and one of the best races we saw all year at the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival. In a thrilling race that saw him go back in forth with the incredibly talented Andruw Villa, Acuna came away with the win in a monster 14:50.60. And Acuna didn't just run this on some soccer course, he ran it on one of the state's best representations of what a true cross-country course is supposed to be.
Understandably, this performance put Acuna amongst the top runners in the state and his results throughout the rest of the season would only echo that sentiment. He turned in another good performance at the Chile Pepper Festival where he ran 15:39.70 for another top fifteen finish in a competitive multi-state field. He then easily won the UIL 6A-District 5 meet for the second year in a row, this time in a much faster 15:04.90.
Acuna competes at the 2023 UIL 6A State Championships where he finished sixth overall
Photo Credit: Gabriel Nieland/MileSplit TX
As the championship season began, Acuna looked like a true contender for the podium at the state meet and he'd fight hard to get there. He ran an impressive 15:17.40 at the UIL 1A-6A Region 1 Championship on another true cross-country course in Lubbock, which sent him to the state meet for the second time.
At the state meet, Acuna didn't have his fastest race of the season but I'd argue it was still his best one. He fought valiantly in an incredibly tight group at the front where the smallest exertion of effort could've put you anywhere from 4th to 14th. Ultimately, Acuna came away with 6th place in a time of 15:10.10 on what was yet another difficult course. Not only did he improve his time by 39 seconds but he also improved his positioning by 34 places, one of the best improvements we saw last year especially when you consider where in the field he gained these places.
Building on his incredible season in the fall, Acuna got back on track and showcased even more improvement in the spring. He opened up his season with big personal bests in both the 1600m and 3200m where he ran 4:27.82 and 9:22.33 respectively. While he didn't end up racing a lot in the spring as he'd only race a combined eight times, Acuna still came away with new personal bests of 4:22.41 and 9:12.30 to set him up well for the fall.
The main thing I think we can expect to see from Acuna this fall is consistency. When you look at these results over time, he's grown not only into someone fast but consistent, and that's reflected particularly on the grass. While it's hard to put definitive figures on someone's season this early on, I think we can expect to see Acuna run at or under 15:10 pretty consistently and I think we can also expect to see him dip under 15:00 a few times if the conditions are optimal on race day.
Another key factor in Acuna's success this fall will be ensuring he peaks at the right time. While I believe he had one of his best races at the state meet in November, his two fastest times came in early September and those times would've won him the state meet. Ultimately, Aleksandr Acuna has rightfully earned his place amongst the state's top runners with a career characterized by consistent improvement and an ability to run fast on some of the state's toughest courses. He's an incredible talent who will come in ranked No. 5 to start the 2024 season.
