Sliding into the No. 9 spot in this year's preseason individual rankings is the top returner of last year's third-place team, and a UIL State Championship medalist Joaquin De La Cruz. De La Cruz marks the fifth Region 1 runner to feature on this list and the fourth from one of last year's podium teams.
De La Cruz is another one of those guys who marks that unique middle ground between an immediate contender and a slow progression. He's always been good, however, his emergence as one of the state's elite talents has not only transformed him as a runner but also helped McKinney Boyd emerge as one of last year's best teams. He's made huge improvements each year of his career while also remaining consistent at the same time.
De La Cruz is truly an all-around distance talent, so let's dive into this career and see how he's evolved into the elite talent that he is today.
Joaquin has always been a solid runner, demonstrating his proficiency on both the track and the grass throughout his freshman year. However, we didn't start seeing signs of him evolving into the elite runner that he is today until his sophomore cross-country season. The first of these came at the 2022 Marcus Coach T Invitational where we saw De La Cruz drop a massive 63-second personal best from 17:02.40 to 15:59.50 in the period of roughly three weeks.
Normally, big jumps like this don't happen and if they do, it's generally down to a difference in courses or something that's not easy to replicate. However, that wasn't the case with Joaquin De La Cruz as once he made this jump in performance he never looked back. He ran a strong 16:15.40 for a top-twenty finish at his home meet the following week before lowering his personal best again down to 15:51.50 at the Jesuit XC Classic in early October.
After that, it was time for De La Cruz's first championship season at the varsity level and he'd start it off the right way. He had his third sub-16:00 performance of the season at the UIL 6A-District 5 meet where he took home 8th place. After this, it was time for his first regional meet, and what better region to have to compete in than the notoriously competitive Region 1? Despite the tough competition and course, De La Cruz had a great race and finished 26th overall in a time of 16:18.80, narrowly missing out on an individual qualifying spot as only a sophomore.
Heading into the spring, it was clear that De La Cruz had turned over a new leaf for his career as he'd gone from struggling to run 17:00 to consistently running in the 15:50s in just a season. Naturally, this built a lot of anticipation for what he could do on the track and what that'd mean for his career progression going forward. Higher expectations generally mean more pressure which can be difficult for runners to deal with, especially young ones. However, De La Cruz's performances would show that not only did pressure not make things difficult for him, it created an environment where he thrived.
He opened up his season early in January at the North Texas Winter 3200m/800m where he built off his strong cross-country season by running 9:34.41 over 3200m. His next race didn't come for a month where he opened up his season over 1600m in 4:31.02 at the Braswell Bengal Relays. De La Cruz had given himself great baselines across both events and he'd only go on to improve and impress as the season went on.
By March the season was in full swing and so was Joaquin De La Cruz. He knocked eight seconds off his personal best from earlier in the year to open the month by running 4:23.57 at the Lovejoy Spring Distance Festival. He then went on to improve marginally over 3200m the following week as he ran 9:34.28 at the Plano ISD Invitational which he then followed with back-to-back 4:27.30 performances to round out the month of March.
Once April rolled around it was time for the championship season and De La Cruz would start it off well at the UIL 6A-Distrct 5 championship. He knocked fourteen seconds off his personal best in the 3200m by running 9:20.51 for second place in the 3200m. He then followed this up by knocking an additional two seconds off his personal best in the 1600m where he ran 4:21.25 for third place.
Next up was the area meet, where De La Cruz picked up where he left off from the previous week by running 9:23.25 to take home the win in the 3200m. Unfortunately, he was unable to qualify in the 1600m but still ran a solid 4:22.97 to take home sixth place in a competitive race. De La Cruz would go on to finish fourth at the UIL 6A Region 1 Championship as only a sophomore by running another consistent 9:22.59.
Despite the end of his UIL season, De La Cruz wasn't done over 1600m as he'd go on to do his best work in the month of May. He'd go on to run a huge personal best of 4:16.65 at the RunningLane Track Championships in Alabama, a time that cemented him not only as one of the best runners in the 2025 class but as one of the biggest names to watch heading into the 2023 cross-country season.
Coming into last Fall, everyone knew that Joaquin De La Cruz was going to be an elite individual talent. However, for some reason, McKinney Boyd was overlooked as a team in the preseason. In retrospect this makes no sense as they'd go on to finish on the podium at the state meet, however, this created a chip on everyone's shoulder including De La Cruz and we'd see this throughout the season.
De La Cruz picked up where he left off in the spring as he opened up his cross-country season at the Southlake #1 XC Invite where he'd run a strong 14:36.40 three-mile to finish 6th overall. Next, he'd open up his season over 5000m at the McKinney Boyd Bronco Stampede where he'd run his current personal best of 15:08.30. After this he only raced one more time before the championship season, at the Jesuit XC Classic where he ran 15:35.90.
By this point in the year, McKinney Boyd had emerged as one of the best teams in the state and they'd set out to prove it when it mattered. De La Cruz played a big role in this as he put in back-to-back elite performances at the district and regional meets where he ran 15:44.30 and 15:21.00 for third and fifth place respectively.
Now it was time for the state meet, where McKinney Boyd had big things expected of them and they met expectations perfectly. The team would go on to finish in my predicted third place, with De La Cruz playing a huge part in this by running 15:26.60 to finish 16th overall and score crucial points for the team in what was one of the tighter battles we've seen for the podium in recent years.
Naturally, performing this well in the fall creates big expectations for the spring, and that's exactly what De La Cruz had to contend with heading into 2024. However, he once again proved himself by going on to have yet another season marked by consistency and drastic improvement as the season went on.
He ran six 3200m races in 2024, all of which saw him run between 9:02 and 9:16. The best of these came at Texas Distance Festival where De La Cruz ran 9:02.53 to finish first overall. In addition to this, De La Cruz also competed eight times over 1600m, all finishing in times between 4:09 and 4:20, remarkable consistency considering how elite these times are. His best performance came in the form of a 4:09.72 which earned him his first medal in the form of a third-place finish at the UIL State Championship.
Coming in the 2024 cross-country season, De La Cruz is one of those guys that I think a lot of people are going to sleep on even though they shouldn't. He's made drastic improvements over the last two seasons and he's maintained such remarkable consistency despite the level he's running at. His track season in particular is what sets him up to have a monster cross-country season and I wouldn't be surprised if we see him finish in the top-five at the state meet.
The only reason he comes in at No. 9 to start the year is because he finished sixteenth at the state meet last year and didn't run as fast as those in front of him. That being said, his performances in the spring radiate confidence and an ascension to the next level that I think we're gonna see reflected and amplified as the season goes on.
For now, it's ninth for Joaquin De La Cruz, but don't be surprised at all if he comes out of the gates as an even more evolved runner who only continues to shoot up the rankings as the season goes on.
