Thunderbird (WXC) 2025 Season Preview

The 2025 NMJC women's cross country season gets off and running at the Western Texas College Open Friday, Aug. 22 at 9 a.m. CDT. 

The Thunderbirds return four sophomores from the 2024 season in Amal Kachouri, Lisel Ndlovu, Ines Mrabet, and Hadil Chiha. 

"It's always a great feeling to have a lot of returners because their first year they're not learning just the way cross country is in the United States, but they're also learning everything, new schooling, new language," NMJC women's cross country head coach Jeff Becker said.

"So, having that knowledge now in those returners, I think once we get everybody going, we get everybody all together, I think that's really going to help us having our sophomore experience at the end of the year."

Kachouri is coming off a freshman season in which she finished in 10th place at the NJCAA DI Cross Country 5k Championships. The Tunisian picked up NJCAA All-American and USTFCCCA All-American honors in Richmond, VA. 

Mrabet came in 17th place at nationals ending her freshman campaign as a USTFCCCA All-American.

Ndlovu placed 41st place as the No. 5 runner in the lineup in Richmond. Chiha was the No. 7 runner for the T-Birds in 2024 coming in 53rd place at nationals.

NMJC adds four newcomers to the fold with transfers Yididiya Bifa and Lindsey Lopes (Salt Lake CC) alongside freshmen Elsa Gueret and Alejandra Sierra.

Bifa is a transfer from Iowa Central where she competed at the 2024 NJCAA DI Cross Country 5k Championships and placed third overall in the race to earn All-American and USTFCCCA All-American honors.

"We've got a lot of newcomers running," Coach Becker said. "Luckily, two of those are transfers, so they're experienced with running college cross country, but mainly, I'm looking to see how they're going to go out there and compete."

"The Western Texas meet is always the first meet of the year. It's always early, it's always hot, the course isn't real fast. I'm mainly just looking for how they're going to go out there and compete."

The outlook from Coach Becker is strong as the Thunderbirds look to improve on their third-place finish at nationals in 2024. 

"Once we get everybody together, I think we have a great shot at placing higher than what we did last year come November when we are in Iowa at nationals."

The Thunderbirds start their first race of the year at the WTC Cross Country Course Friday, Aug. 22 in Snyder, Texas at 9 a.m. CDT. There will be no live timing.