Amal Kachouri Finishes Runner-up, T-Birds Win 2 in a Row

The Thunderbirds won their second meet in a row at the NMJC Invitational III on Friday, Oct. 11.

The T-Birds scored 33 points to defeat Texas Tech by nine points and Odessa College by 38 points. NMJC has now won three meets so far this season.  

The Thunderbirds saw back-to-back weeks where Amal Kachouri finished runner-up with a time of 18:27.57. Kachouri improved her time by 29.23 seconds compared to the NMJC Invitational II.

Freshman Ines Mrabet came in sixth place this week posting a time of 18:46.58. The finish is a personal best at Harry McAdams Park and was 20.72 seconds quicker than what she ran in the NMJC Invitational II.  

Jayne Elvin ran a season-best 19:04.07 to finish in eighth place at the invitational. The Englishwoman was 15.03 seconds improved from her last 5k race. 

"I think the best thing for those three (Amal, Ines, and Jayne) right now is working on them being competitive amongst the three, and I'm really trying to get Jayne capable of it," NMJC cross country head coach Jeff Becker said. "She's got a faster personal best compared to the other two at the college level here in the United States." 

"So, I'm trying to get them to kind of mix it up a little bit more. If you know somebody's having a bad day then the other one go type of thing and we're trying to do that in training as well. When we've done some of our interval work where we've done some repeat 800s or repeat 1000s or something. I've put those three at hey you need to hit the same times type of thing, so that way they get used to battling each other in practice."

"We have to have those three up at the top of the group, especially when we're looking at nationals. We have to have them up at the top to win," Becker said.

Emilly Silva was productive in her first race back since injury. The Brazilian finished in 10th place with a time of 19:25.73, which was 2:36.47 faster than what she ran in the NMJC Invitational.

Lisel Ndlovu was just outside the top 10 as she placed 11th in the race with a time of 19:33.14 to round out the team score. The personal-best finish was 44.16 seconds better than her time at the NMJC Invitational II.

"Another thing that I try to do with our women's team a little bit is compare the team average time compared to where we were last year at this time," Coach Becker said. "So, at our Invitational III last year, our women averaged 19:22.00 for the 5k and this time we averaged 19:03. So, to me we're ahead of where that group was last year at this time."

"You always have those little goals that you're shooting for and mine was we needed to average under 18 or under 19 at this last meet and we almost did that. We barely missed it so that was a little frustrating because I know what they can do. I'm just hoping that when we come into regionals in two weeks that this group will reach their full potential because they have a chance of being one of the best we've ever had here."

Francesca Alvarado performed much better this week coming in 14th place. The sophomore posted a 19:49.46 finish, which was improved by a whopping 2:10.94.

Hadil Chiha finished in 24th place with a time of 20:40.79. Chiha improved on last week's performance by 31.51 seconds. Daphne Kausz placed 31st with a time of 20:53.11 in her first race since the NMJC Invitational. 

Sophomore Tyfane Martins was the final Thunderbird to cross the finish line in 32nd place with a finish of 20:58.23. Jody Ann Mitchell started the race for the T-Birds, but did not finish.

"I feel like we've got to a place where the women, they've kind of just kind of been steady," Becker said. "This meet I did see some improvements on our course. Some of them haven't run their best 5ks of the year. We did see some improvements from what we've been doing on our course and to me that was a positive direction for us. It gave a lot of them some confidence going into regionals here."

Coach Becker has a few formulas that help him decide who to roll with come the start of the postseason he said.

"I mean it's kind of like any other sport where you look at who has the hot hand and that's going to be the person that you put in the game," Becker said. "So it's kind of like that with cross country too when we have to limit and cut down to only our top seven for regionals and nationals. I look at different formulas of how they've placed throughout the year and the times they ran, but also who's running the best right now. Because you definitely want to put your best seven out there at regionals and at nationals."

Depth is the largest advantage the T-Birds have this season. The Thunderbirds have a lineup that can be interchangeable, but that can also lead to tough decisions during the lead up to the final two meets. 

"Another thing that is a good problem to have and I think is an advantage that only a couple of the top teams in the nation have right now is that we have good depth," Coach Becker said. "We could have a couple of athletes where something happened, and we would still have another couple that are going to pop right in there. Some of the teams when you look at the top level at the nationals don't have that. They only have five good ones and then if something happens, they're in trouble. I like where we are at as a team headed into the postseason."

The Thunderbirds compete next in the Region V Championships on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 10:30 a.m. MDT in Hobbs, NM at Harry McAdams Park.