NMJC Cross Country Championships Preview, Livestream Link
The T-Bird men and women will compete in the NJCAA DI Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, Fla. Saturday morning. The women will run first at 9:15 am EST and the men will follow at 11:00 a.m. EST.
Below cross country head coach Jeff Becker previews how each team stacks up as the Thunderbirds face stiff competition Nov. 12 at the 2022 DI Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships.
T-Bird Men Preview
"The men come into nationals ranked No. 4," Becker said. "We have goals of being in the top three. The men are looking good, but it will be a little more difficult just because we'll be running without our normal number five in Alex Keter, who is injured. We will run a total of five athletes, which in cross country you score five athletes, so it makes it a little more difficult for us. Tomorrow everybody is going to have to have their best day, but I truly believe that with this group we can come out successful."
"Individually the men's team will look to have their first NJCAA All-American since bringing the program back in 2019. So far, we've had three coaches association All-Americans (Top 25 finish), but we have not had NJCAA All-American (Top 15 finish). With this year's group, I feel like we have four men that could possibly finish in the Top 15. So that is great that we could not only get our first All-American since the program has been back, but we could get multiple NJCAA All-Americans on the men's side."
T-Bird Women Preview
"The women come into the meet ranked No. 2 in the nation," Becker said. "I feel like we're finally healthy all the way around. The women have a great advantage in the fact that we have great depth in all seven of our runners. Damaris Chewon and Nolo (Letlhogonolo Magoro) have been our top two runners all year, but after that it has been wide open between number three and number seven. It can be anybody that finishes in those spots. When you have that much depth in cross country it truly helps out and I look for the ladies to do really well tomorrow."
"Individually we have a large group of ladies led by Damaris and Nolo that could all be in the Top 15. Last year Daisy Jerop was an NJCAA All-American finishing 11th at the national meet. She'll look to become a two-time cross country All-American. Again, with this much depth it leads to great success for our team."
T-Bird Nation can watch from home via the NJCAA Network. Follow the link listed here and search for the link that says 2022 DI & DII Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships.
Livestream Link https://www.njcaa.org/network/landing/index
Live Results Link https://bit.ly/3E0CuMk