T-Birds Win 4th Meet, Bitew Earns Second Straight Top-5
The NMJC men's cross country team won their fourth meet of the year on Friday, Oct. 10 at the Thunderbird Open 8k.
The Thunderbirds scored 40 points to finish in first place, South Plains was second with 69 points, and Odessa was third with 75 points.
Addiso Bitew finished in third place this week which was a career-best finish for the freshman. Bitew ran a 24:31.40 to rank as the top T-Bird in the field.
Emmanuel Kimaiyo was one spot behind Bitew in fourth place. Kimaiyo finished with a 24:32.90 in the 8k to run 47 seconds quicker than in the same race in 2024.
Sophomore Killian LeBourhis finished his first race of the year on Friday after missing most of the season due to injury. LeBourhis raced to a 24:41.40 finish to place fifth overall.
Ronald Jecky came across the line in 10th place with a time of 25:17.30. Sophomore Israel Takap was the final member of the team score in 19th place with a finish of 26:20.40.
Sophomore Nathan Bonavida struggled through an injury in the latter half of the race but finished in 33rd place with a time of 27:47.30. Freshman Rayane Courtois was 42nd running a 28:51.30. Elmehdi Bouchouata did not finish the 8k this week.
The Thunderbirds were without their top two runners Mohammed Mrahi and Brian Cheruiyot who sat out to rest for regionals. Erwan Darrieulat also was unable to run on Friday.
"The men, our main focus is maybe not the front runners, but to help determine who are going to be our five, six, or seven for regionals," Coach Becker said. "So, we're trying to use this meet to kind of determine who's going to be those last few spots on our region team."
NMJC will begin the postseason at the Region V Championship Saturday, Oct. 25 at Harry McAdams Park in Hobbs, NM starting at 10:15 a.m. MDT.
