T-Birds Win NJCAA Half Marathon National Championship, Tomas Vega Wins Individual Title

The NMJC men's cross country team won the 2023 NJCAA Men's Half Marathon National Championship and the men's individual title on Tuesday, Nov. 14 for the first time in program history.

"Tuesday was a great day for our program," NMJC cross country head coach Jeff Becker said. "We'd never had an individual champion in the half marathon. We ended up actually having two with Tomas winning for the men and Damaris winning on the women's side."

The T-Birds finished with a team score of 14 points, which was three points clear of the runner-up Trinidad State. Salt Lake came in third place with 37 points.

The Thunderbirds were led by NMJC distance runner Tomas Vega, who took home the NJCAA Men's Half Marathon individual title for the first time in men's program history in historic fashion.

Tomas' time of 1:03:58.30 set the NJCAA Half Marathon national record. The previous record of 1:04:03.60 was set in 2021 by Iowa Central two-time champion Aspel Kiprob. Vega's finish also was No. 2 all-time for an U-23 Argentinian half marathon runner. Vega finishes the cross country season with six wins overall.

"We were able to break the national record with Tomas, which is outstanding," Becker said. "A lot of the coaches including myself thought it was going to be a long, long time before the previous record was broken, but Tomas ran great. Him and German just really kind of took control of the race early and just pushed each other and nobody challenged them."

The finish earned Tomas NJCAA Half Marathon All-American and USTFCCCA All-American honors. Vega finished in seventh in the 2022 half marathon race and was an USTFCCCA All-American. 

Tomas' cross country season ranks up there with one of the best overall performances a cross country runner has ever had at NMJC and is certainly the best season Becker has seen from a men's cross country athlete he said.

"I think it rates pretty close to what Caroline Jepleting did back in 2010," Becker said. "She didn't do the half marathon, but she went undefeated that year winning every race. What Tomas did was outstanding." 

Tomas and German's performance in the half marathon was not shocking to Coach Becker.

"Tomas competed well all year long and won when we needed him to win," Becker said. "What he did at the half marathon was just amazing. A lot of coaches again came up to me and said, "Man, those guys (Tomas and German) were out for blood." and after a disappointing team finish on Saturday you could tell Tomas and German were going to do everything they could to make sure this team won a national championship."

German Vega paced nearly the entire way with his brother Tomas in the half marathon. Tomas took off with 1k to go in the race and left German to finish runner-up with a time of 1:04:11.90.

The finish earned German NJCAA Half Marathon All-American and USTFCCCA All-American honors for the second consecutive season. Vega came in fifth in last year's half marathon.

Marc Pauvert was the third runner across the finish line for the T-Birds. Pauvert came in 12th place with a time of 1:09:20.30. The half marathon only factors in three runners to the team score. Pauvert's finish along with the first and second place finishes by the Vegas secured the national title.

"Obviously for our men's team to get their first-ever team national championship was very exciting," Becker said. "Yes, it is exciting to have the individual winners, but we are a team sport. It took three scorers in order to win it all, and Marc came through for our team in his very last race at NMJC."

Pauvert, a December graduate, earned USTFCCCA All-American honors with his 12th place finish.

"Marc has been a great asset to our school and to our program," Becker said. "He was never really able to show his full potential until his very last race on Tuesday. I mean anybody that knows Marc on campus knows him because he's just always smiling and friendly, and just a great person to be around. For him to be able to come through on his very last race and help us win the team title was amazing."

Alex Keter finished in 38th place with a time of 1:13:36.80. Paul Maurer was the 48th runner to finish the race in 1:15:16.10. Wilson Navarrete placed 64th with a time of 1:17:40.50. Cyprien Bille was the final runner for the T-Birds on the course as he came across the finish in 1:20:06.50 to place 83rd.  

The T-Birds finish the 2023 cross country season with a fourth-place finish in the NJCAA DI Men's Cross Country Championships and a national championship in the NJCAA Men's Half Marathon.

Finally winning the national championship on the cross country side was a moment Coach Becker will never forget.

​​"We've won on the track and that's always exciting," Becker said. "I've been wanting to get something on the cross country and half marathon side. We've been really close a lot of times and yeah it was just outstanding to finally be able to put it all together and get the elusive national championship my teams have been chasing."