NMJC (MXC) 2025 Season Preview

The 2025 NMJC men's cross country season kicks off at the Western Texas College Open Friday, Aug. 22 at 8:30 a.m. CDT. 

NMJC returns seven student-athletes from last season's roster in Brian Cheruiyot, Emmanuel Kimaiyo, Mohammed Mrahi, Killian LeBourhis, Erwan Darrieulat, Nathan Bonavida, and Israel Takap.

"With the men especially, our focus from Day 1 this year has been we're going to do things right, so we stay healthy," NMJC men's cross country head coach Jeff Becker said. "Last year's team had great potential to really do something nationally, and we just had too many injuries. So, with this year's group, that's been the focus."

Cheruiyot was the top performer for NMJC at the NJCAA DI Cross Country 8k Championships with his 19th-place finish. The Kenyan picked up USTFCCCA All-American honors with the performance.

Kimaiyo finished in 46th place at nationals in 2024 as the No. 2 runner and Takap was the No. 7 runner in 83rd-place. Killian LeBourhis dropped out during last year's nationals due to injury and Mrahi was unable to start in the race in Richmond, VA due to a foot injury as well.

The T-Birds finished their 2024 campaign in seventh place nationally after a flurry of injuries derailed the end to their season. 

"We have some guys that are returning that missed out and didn't get to run at nationals in cross country and hopefully it motivates them as sophomores," Coach Becker said. "They can share that feeling with the freshmen that 'Hey, it's not fun to not be able to run at nationals'." 

The Thunderbirds add five new members to the fold this fall with Ronald Jecky, Alexandre Fablet, Addiso Bitew, and Elmehdi Bouchouata.

Jecky and Fablet are new to cross country this season, but they do have a semester under their belt in 2025 as they competed during the Thunderbird track season.

"I don't think the returners liked where we finished last year," Coach Becker said. "We do have a mix of newcomers, being the fact that some of them are second semester newcomers, where they were here in track, and some are brand new. Really, all those new guys are learning cross country, but I'm just excited to see them blend together and then keep that focus. If we stay healthy, we're going to run well."

The combination of old and new is likely going to lead to some friendly competition that Coach Becker hopes can motivate his squad throughout the year. 

"I believe that with our guys, we have enough depth that I think that our top five through seven runners are going to be mixed up almost every week. The motivation to be in the top seven, the motivation to be in the top five as a scoring runner is really going to help the team be competitive with each other."

The T-Birds start their first race of the year at the WTC Cross Country Course Friday, Aug. 22 in Snyder, Texas at 8:30 a.m. CDT. There will be no live timing.