Art Menchaca

Art Menchaca has run a marathon in 2 hours, 18 minutes, which is like a baseball player hitting .400.
His distance running legacy is such that he won the 1978 Big Sky Conference cross-country championship, leading the Lumberjacks to the conference title.
In 1980, after sitting out most of the track season with a stress fracture, he returned for the Big Sky finals and won the 5,000 meters and 3,000 meter steeplechase, two races he also won in 1979.
Forty years after he graduated, his 3,000 meter time in the steeplechase is still No. 4 in the NAU record books.
No wonder the Lumberjacks inducted Menchaca to the NAU Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, one of just two Tucsonans so honored (followed by Palo Verde High basketball standout Jeff Altman).
Menchaca got his start in distance running at Sunnyside High School in the mid ‘70s, when the Blue Devils were a state power, winning the 1975 state championship in cross country, and finishing second in 1974. He ran the mile in 4:15 while at Sunnyside, then a Tucson prep record.
After that, he was a key piece of Pima College’s rise to national prominence, helping the Aztecs to finish second in the 1977 NJCAA championships. In ‘76, he was undefeated, helping PCC win the ACCAC championship in cross country as the Aztecs finished No. 2 nationally.
Running for the Pima College track and field team in 1977, he finished second nationally in the 3,000 meter steeplechase.
After completing school at NAU, he was sponsored by Nike to compete in road races around America. He also competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials three times. After that, he won the Phoenix Marathon in 1988, with his stellar 2:18 time.
By the time he became a full-time administrator in the Sunnyside School District, he had helped to co-found the popular Mesquites Cross Country Invitational and the Mario Castro Track and Field Invitational.
Today, Menchaca continues to make an impact in the distance running community. He operates the Menchaca Running Camp each summer in Greer, in the White Mountains.