T-Birds Sweep Home Meet, Vega and Chewon Earn USTFCCCA Athletes of the Week

T-Birds Sweep Home Meet, Vega and Chewon Earn USTFCCCA Athletes of the Week
September 23, 2022

The New Mexico Junior College men's and women's cross country teams both finished in first place Friday morning in Hobbs, NM at Harry McAdams Park.

The Thunderbird women set the standard early with five runners finishing the 5k in the top 10. Damaris Chewon snatched first place with a time of 18:32.30. 

Chewon's finish set a meet record for the NMJC Invitational and now has her No. 10 all-time on the 5k list for the Thunderbirds.

Sophomore runner Letlhogonolo Magoro finished in fourth place posting a time of 20:03.70, Lovington, NM native Vanessa Gallegos finished in seventh with a career-best time of 20:22.20, Daisy Jerop placed eighth overall (20:24.10), Joan Kimalel rounded out the team scoring in 10th place with a time of 20:45.10.

The Thunderbird women finished with a team score of 23 points, 11 ahead of runner-up Lubbock Christian.  

Cross country head coach Jeff Becker was impressed by the women's showing Friday morning.

"On the women's side, Damaris ran away with the meet winning by a good margin," Becker said. "She is learning how to push herself and that is great. Also, Vanessa had a great race, she moved up from our seventh runner on the team at the Western Texas Meet to finish as our third runner today."

 

The T-Bird men steamrolled the competition with the team placing five runners in the top seven.

Freshman German Vega dominated the field in the men's 8k, shattering the school record by 38 seconds with a time of 24:12.00.

Vega's twin brother Tomas Vega was not far behind, posting a second-place finish of 24:43.00, a mere seven seconds ahead of the now eclipsed 2021 school record held by sophomore Chris Korir (24:50.00).

Sophomore Evans Pololet placed fourth in the race with a time of 25:02.60, Chris Korir came in sixth place running a time of 25:29.10, and Alex Keter rounded out the team scoring running 26:16.40.

The Thunderbird men finished with a team score of 17 points, 26 in front of runner-up Lubbock Christian.  

"For the men, German had a great race," Becker said. "He set the NMJC school record with his time on Friday. His brother Tomas finished in second and was also just under the old school record."

"Overall, we ran well today at the home meet. Anytime you can win both the men's and women's races it is great."

On Monday, German Vega and Damaris Chewon were named the USTFCCCA Athletes of the Week. 

The Thunderbird women were ranked No. 4 overall in the first edition of the Cross Country USTFCCCA NJCAA DI Coaches Poll. The T-Bird men came in ranked No. 7 overall in the Cross Country USTFCCCA NJCAA DI Coaches Poll. 

The Thunderbirds will travel Friday, Sept. 30 to Levelland, Texas to compete at the South Plains Invitational. The T-Bird women will run at 4 p.m. CDT and the men will follow at 4:30 p.m. CDT.