Thunderbirds Finish 6th at NJCAA Cross Country Championships!!

The Thunderbird cross country team competed this past Saturday, November 8^th at the NJCAA Championships held in Lubbock, TX. The meet featured the best NJCAA schools from across the United States. There were a total of 36 full teams and 274 runners that competed in the national championship race.

The Thunderbirds set NMJC history by finishing 6^th place as a team. "This is the best finish by a women's cross country team in school history" commented Coach Jeff Becker. The previous best finish was 7^th. Both the 2002 and 2003 teams finished 7^th at the national final. "Not to take anything away from those teams, but at that time the NJCAA had multiple divisions for cross country and those teams were competing against fewer schools then we are now" added Coach Becker. In fact, this year's team is the first top ten team scene the NJCAA combined divisions in 2004. "We had a goal all year long to finish in the top ten and these ladies did it. I am very proud of them" stated Coach Becker.

Individually, the T-Birds showed that cross country is in fact a true team sport. "We had some ladies really step up today" said Coach Becker. The Thunderbirds who had been battling injuries were still not at full strength, but even those that were hurting ran with great heart and determination to reach our team goal. 

Sophomore Purity Murray ended here cross country career as a T-Bird by earning All-American honors for the second straight season. She finished in 11^th place running a cross country personal best time of 18:19. This time also ranks her 3^rd all-time here at NMJC. Coming in next for the T-Birds was Naomi Tanui. Naomi finished in 26^th place and ran a personal best time of 18:51. Her time also ranks her in the top 10 ever at NMJC, it puts her at 8^th.

The third finisher for NMJC was Silvia Sosa. Silvia, who has been battling an injury was able to tough it out to finish 74^th place. Isidra Guerrero was the 4^th runner for the team finishing in 83^rd place. Her time was a personal best of 19:56. "I was very excited for Isidra" added Coach Becker. This is the first time Isidra has ran under 20:00. The final scorer for the Thunderbirds was Cristal Corrales. Cristal finished in 114^th place. Finishing in the sixth and seventh displacer positions for NMJC were Chrissy Maldonado (202^nd place) and Elena Guerrero (229^th place). Both Chrissy and Elena dropped minutes from there season best time and really ran well.