Completed Event: Track and Field at NAU Tune Up on February 20, 2026 ,
Track & Field
at NAU Tune Up
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Photo by: Taylor Hansen
Hernandez honored with WAC's Stan Bates Award
9/6/2023 11:01:00 AM | Track and Field, Paul Coro
GCU runner named conference's top student-athlete, aims to inspire hometown youth
When Mariano Hernandez was growing up in the Texas border town of Eagle Pass, some locals would tell him, "Don't dream too big."
It is a good thing for Eagle Pass that Hernandez's ambition and intrigue to help himself and others could not be quelled.
Hernandez turned fill-in duty at a high school track meet into a Grand Canyon degree and track career that culminates with him winning the WAC's highest honor – the Stan Bates Award, given to the top male and female for accomplishments in academics, athletics and community service.
His $10,000 postgraduate scholarship award will go toward fostering big dreams for the youth of Eagle Pass, where Hernandez wants to return with certification to teach, coach and eventually open an athletic training facility with his Business Management degree.
"I want to encourage more people from my community to make a change," said Hernandez, who was part of three WAC champion teams after transferring from UT Rio Grande Valley. "I'm part of less than 1% from Eagle Pass who have gone to college and graduated. I want to help kids and make sure the community knows that their dreams aren't too big. Because that's what the community in Eagle Pass lacks. They don't have a lot of hope."
Hernandez's hope came by accident. At an offseason football workout at Winn High School, the leaders of a team race were asked to run in relays for Winn's shorthanded junior varsity team. At a rainy meet in the town of 28,000 people, a coach complimented Hernandez's stride and invited him to join the varsity "4 by 4."
"What do you mean?" Hernandez asked of the 1,600-meter relay. "You run it four times?"
A track star was discovered.
"I opened a lot of people's eyes," Hernandez said. "From there, everything changed."
The son of a father who trains horses and a mother who sells baked goods from home, Hernandez took out a student loan to be a first-generation college student at UTRGV but pledged to earn more scholarships. He also knew he needed to adhere to both parts of being a student-athlete after failing one class and dropping another in his first semester.
"I locked myself in a room and told myself, 'Hey, are you going to let those people be proven right or are you going to do the opposite?', " Hernandez said. "One day, I said, 'Let's think about that we're doing this beyond ourselves. Every day you do something, let's think about Mom and Dad and the opportunity that was given to me that isn't open to a lot of people in my situation.' "
Hernandez turned the corner as swiftly as he does the curves on a track.
He earned better grades, better times and more scholarships. Hernandez graduated with a 3.7 GPA and was the 2020 WAC indoor 400-meter champion as a sophomore, broke the GCU 400-meter record as a junior and ran on two NCAA regional-qualifying relays as a senior.
While being an enthusiastic vocal leader on the track for his two GCU years, Hernandez also was being a selfless, silent servant away from it. He sought community service opportunities without sharing what he was doing. Even when administrators learned of it and asked him to track hours, Hernandez was reluctant because he did not want attention for it.
Hernandez repeatedly left campus alone to help pack boxes at a food bank, deliver food to homeless people before morning classes and make grade-school visits to read or speak to classes where he could be a Latino role model.
"I'll never forget that stuff," Hernandez said. "My first time talking to kids just made me want to do it more and more."
Hernandez will not be forgotten by GCU, where he was among the most involved and engaged student-athletes.
He was asked to speak at this year's Lopey Awards, the GCU Athletics annual ceremony at which he won the top male student-athlete honor – the Roland L. Beck Senior Scholar-Athlete Award.
Now, he is on a short list of Lopes who have won the conference's Stan Bates Award with softball players Bianca Boling (2018) and Gianna Nicoletti (2022) and fellow runner Sam Proctor (2017).
"He is the epitome of the term student-athlete and is a wonderful representation of what my GCU track and field programs strive to achieve," Lopes head coach Tom Flood said of Hernandez. "He is a dedicated and decorated student-athlete on the track, in the classroom and the community.
"His leadership and performances will be dearly missed this year. But by winning this award, hopefully that means he'll start a graduate program and help volunteer coach for us while he's back in school."
The gratefulness runs two ways with Flood, who gave Hernandez more than training on the track.
"Coach Flood cared about me more than just as an athlete," Hernandez said. "He made GCU home for me. I told him I wanted to be a coach and he said, 'Anything that I can help you, let me know and I'll try to help you as much as I can.' In big schools, once you graduate, they wipe their hands of you. It's business for them. When you're done, you're done. Coach Flood made it like family."
Hernandez wants to be that person for kids following his spike tracks in Eagle Pass. He wants to instill belief in students so that their dreams can't be considered too big – whether it is running 400 meters in less than 47 seconds or earning a business degree, or both in his case.
"If you just wake up every morning with a smile, be positive and serve everybody with that energy, then God gives you a lot of smiles and a lot of energy to do what you do," Hernandez said.
It is a good thing for Eagle Pass that Hernandez's ambition and intrigue to help himself and others could not be quelled.
Hernandez turned fill-in duty at a high school track meet into a Grand Canyon degree and track career that culminates with him winning the WAC's highest honor – the Stan Bates Award, given to the top male and female for accomplishments in academics, athletics and community service.His $10,000 postgraduate scholarship award will go toward fostering big dreams for the youth of Eagle Pass, where Hernandez wants to return with certification to teach, coach and eventually open an athletic training facility with his Business Management degree.
"I want to encourage more people from my community to make a change," said Hernandez, who was part of three WAC champion teams after transferring from UT Rio Grande Valley. "I'm part of less than 1% from Eagle Pass who have gone to college and graduated. I want to help kids and make sure the community knows that their dreams aren't too big. Because that's what the community in Eagle Pass lacks. They don't have a lot of hope."
Hernandez's hope came by accident. At an offseason football workout at Winn High School, the leaders of a team race were asked to run in relays for Winn's shorthanded junior varsity team. At a rainy meet in the town of 28,000 people, a coach complimented Hernandez's stride and invited him to join the varsity "4 by 4."
"What do you mean?" Hernandez asked of the 1,600-meter relay. "You run it four times?"
A track star was discovered.
"I opened a lot of people's eyes," Hernandez said. "From there, everything changed."
The son of a father who trains horses and a mother who sells baked goods from home, Hernandez took out a student loan to be a first-generation college student at UTRGV but pledged to earn more scholarships. He also knew he needed to adhere to both parts of being a student-athlete after failing one class and dropping another in his first semester."I locked myself in a room and told myself, 'Hey, are you going to let those people be proven right or are you going to do the opposite?', " Hernandez said. "One day, I said, 'Let's think about that we're doing this beyond ourselves. Every day you do something, let's think about Mom and Dad and the opportunity that was given to me that isn't open to a lot of people in my situation.' "
Hernandez turned the corner as swiftly as he does the curves on a track.
He earned better grades, better times and more scholarships. Hernandez graduated with a 3.7 GPA and was the 2020 WAC indoor 400-meter champion as a sophomore, broke the GCU 400-meter record as a junior and ran on two NCAA regional-qualifying relays as a senior.
While being an enthusiastic vocal leader on the track for his two GCU years, Hernandez also was being a selfless, silent servant away from it. He sought community service opportunities without sharing what he was doing. Even when administrators learned of it and asked him to track hours, Hernandez was reluctant because he did not want attention for it.Hernandez repeatedly left campus alone to help pack boxes at a food bank, deliver food to homeless people before morning classes and make grade-school visits to read or speak to classes where he could be a Latino role model.
"I'll never forget that stuff," Hernandez said. "My first time talking to kids just made me want to do it more and more."
Hernandez will not be forgotten by GCU, where he was among the most involved and engaged student-athletes.
He was asked to speak at this year's Lopey Awards, the GCU Athletics annual ceremony at which he won the top male student-athlete honor – the Roland L. Beck Senior Scholar-Athlete Award.
Now, he is on a short list of Lopes who have won the conference's Stan Bates Award with softball players Bianca Boling (2018) and Gianna Nicoletti (2022) and fellow runner Sam Proctor (2017).
"He is the epitome of the term student-athlete and is a wonderful representation of what my GCU track and field programs strive to achieve," Lopes head coach Tom Flood said of Hernandez. "He is a dedicated and decorated student-athlete on the track, in the classroom and the community.
"His leadership and performances will be dearly missed this year. But by winning this award, hopefully that means he'll start a graduate program and help volunteer coach for us while he's back in school."
The gratefulness runs two ways with Flood, who gave Hernandez more than training on the track.
"Coach Flood cared about me more than just as an athlete," Hernandez said. "He made GCU home for me. I told him I wanted to be a coach and he said, 'Anything that I can help you, let me know and I'll try to help you as much as I can.' In big schools, once you graduate, they wipe their hands of you. It's business for them. When you're done, you're done. Coach Flood made it like family."
Hernandez wants to be that person for kids following his spike tracks in Eagle Pass. He wants to instill belief in students so that their dreams can't be considered too big – whether it is running 400 meters in less than 47 seconds or earning a business degree, or both in his case.
"If you just wake up every morning with a smile, be positive and serve everybody with that energy, then God gives you a lot of smiles and a lot of energy to do what you do," Hernandez said.
Congratulations to our guy Mariano for winning the prestigious WAC Stan Bates award! #LopesUp pic.twitter.com/lmqHE1OEzy
— GCU Track & Field + Cross Country (@GCU_TrackXC) September 6, 2023
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