Concordia Texas Athletics

Alex Aldaco enters his 13th year as the head coach of the Concordia University Texas cross country teams and sixth year as the leader of the track & field program. He is the longest-tenured coach at the institution.

Aldaco started up the Tornado cross country programs as a part-time coach in 2001 and was promoted to full-time status in 2008. The men’s team saw immediate success, finishing fourth among seven schools that scored at the 2001 American Southwest Conference Championships. This past fall, the men placed fifth overall at the ASC Championships by having the top-five finishers record the five fastest 8,000-meter course times at any championship meet. Led by Michael Normand, Concordia’s top four runners at the competition were all freshmen.

The women’s program, which was named a 2011 USTFCCCA All-Academic Team, has grown by leaps and bounds over the past three seasons. The Tornados won their first American Southwest Conference championship in 2011 before placing ninth at the NCAA Regional Championships, the highest team standing ever posted by any ASC school on record, two weeks later. Aldaco was named the ASC Coach of the Year and produced a record four all-conference selections after having just three all-time in previous seasons. The Tornados posted a fifth-place finish, its highest finish ever at the time, at the 2010 ASC Championships with only one upperclassman among the group's top-five finishers and most recently placed third at the 2012 ASC Championships. Maegan Leider was named the program’s first-ever ASC Freshman of the Year after recording the fastest 6,000-meter course time in school history, while Megan Wagenaar reset the best mark on a 5,000-meter circuit in the program annals by winning the individual crown in a dual meet victory against Southwestern.

Aldaco, who has coached 13 men’s and women’s all-conference honorees, came to the school after serving as a graduate assistant for the distance running program at Texas Tech University. During his stay in Lubbock, Aldaco worked with multiple NCAA champions, including 2000 outdoor 10,000-meter winner Leigh Daniel. Aldaco also competed for the Red Raiders, earning four varsity letters.

Before attending Texas Tech, Aldaco started his collegiate career and undergraduate studies at Adams State, where he was part of its NCAA Division II National Cross Country Champion squad.

Aldaco received his bachelor’s degree in exercise sports sciences from Texas Tech in 1999. He resides in Round Rock with his wife, Brooke, and four daughters.