Spencer Castro is entering his first season as the inaugural cross country coach at UC Merced.
The 2011 Stanford University graduate developed his interest in coaching as a counselor at Stanford’s Nike Camp of Champions, while running for Stanford cross country and track and field teams. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology and Society.
In 2011, as a senior, Castro contributed to Stanford’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation indoor track and field championship with a fifth-place finish on the anchor leg of the 1,600-meter relay. He also helped the Cardinal to a fourth consecutive win over rival California at the Big Meet with a third-place finish in the 800, and he helped the 1,600 relay team place 22nd during Stanford’s sixth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
In 2010, Castro participated in a cross country season that led to a Pac-10 cross country championship for the Cardinal, but he competed in only one race during the track season due to injury.
Castro placed 13th in the 800 at the 2009 MPSF Indoor Championships with a career-best run of 1 minute, 52.77 seconds. As a freshman, he finished 26th at the MPSF Championships in the 400, ran a collegiate-best time of 49.40 seconds in the 400 at the University of Washington Invitational, and ran season outdoor bests in the 200 (22.86) and the 400 (50.69) at the Davis quad meet.
While at Sonora Union High School, Castro helped capture the 2005 Sac-Joaquin Section team title, then took the 2006 section titles in the 800, 1,600 and 1,600 relay. He also helped Sonora to second place in the 2006 cross country section meet and was named Athlete of the Meet at the Gold Rush Elite Invitational that same year.
Castro is a native of the Yosemite foothills, northeast of Merced. He is also a research associate, conducting interdisciplinary research with faculty in the Cognitive and Information Sciences program in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, with an eye on graduate school in the future.
