Marco Cunningham '25 Recruiting Profile

Hello! My name is Marco Cunningham. As of writing this, I am a junior at Waco Meyer (Rapoport Academy) High School. I love running! I have had steady improvement over the last 3 years, qualified for the UIL 2A Texas XC championships the last 3 years as well as the Texas UIL 2A state track championships in both the 1600 and 3200 my sophomore year, where I finished second in both races. For PRs, I have run 9:44 for the 3200m, 4:30 in the 1600m, and a 15:33 XC 5k. For evidence of my improvement, take my performance at the Midway Hewitt Kiwanis Invitational over the last three years. Freshman year running 19:05 over three miles for 49th place, sophomore year I went 17:30 for 14th, and this year I won the meet in 15:22. For more evidence, take the UIL 2A state meet where I went 18:32 freshman year (66th), 18:15 sophomore year (22nd), and 15:48 for second this season.

I am tied for first in my class with a 4.53 weighted GPA, was the Freshman class president, and tested a 1440 SAT. In addition to this, I am the treasurer of the Waco Meyer chapter of Future Business Leaders of America where I attended the state conference spring 2023, and am a member of the City of Waco Youth Council, where I serve as secretary. I am also a member of NHS (National Honor Society) as of spring of 2023.

It has always been a dream of mine to run for college. I am constantly putting in the work, I write all of my own training schedules and do the vast majority of my workouts by myself. Going to a small school with little to no coaching, I have learned the importance of responsibility and hard work. I think that if I was given the opportunity with formal coaching I would be a great asset to any team. I hope to break four minutes in the mile in my lifetime and think I can go under 4:10 this coming season.

This 2023 season, I persuaded some classmates of mine I saw potential in to join cross country and wrote out a training schedule for about 8 or 9 of them to follow. We put hundreds of miles in over the summer, culminating in a 3rd place finish at our region and a state qualification as a team, making us the first team in Rapoport Meyer High school history to make the state championships in any sport. My team are my best friends and it has been so fun coaching them and seeing them grow to enjoy running as much as I do.