Thunderbirds cross country chases titles – Mesa Legend

The Thunderbirds men’s and women’s cross-country teams both opened the season ranked first in their respective divisions, leaving high expectations for both teams to meet.

For the women’s team, this is familiar territory as they have been the national champions for the past two seasons on top of this being their third consecutive season placing first in the preseason rankings. 

As for the men’s team, this is their second time being ranked first in the polls due to ending off last season with a top five national ranking.

Daniel Pescador, the head coach of both teams, set two different goals for the teams, however each with a similar theme of achievement and success. “For the women, win — with the roster we have, go for the three-peat championship. For the men, I’d say just get on the podium, which has been missing. We’ve been top five the last four years, so a successful year for the men would be getting a trophy, getting on the podium. A great season would be coming back as champions.”

  The Thunderbirds are aware that coming into this season as reigning champions puts a target on their backs, which makes opposing runners even more motivated to beat them. 

“Teams want to come test themselves against us. I think there is a little added pressure, but we can only control ourselves and our mindset. Once the gun goes off, we can’t do much from the sidelines,” Pescador said.

For the runners, that mindset begins before they even step onto the course. Alexavier Martinez, a runner on the men’s team who was named the M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week in early September, said that the team doesn’t let high expectations affect their races.

“I really believe in keeping things simple and acting like it’s just a normal day before meets, nothing particularly special,” Martinez said.

Arianna Mason, who was a transfer from Paradise Valley, entered the season as the defending 2025 NJCAA Division II women’s national champion, but she is aware that last year’s results do not guarantee the same success this year.

“Last season the foundation was laid down, and now this season it’s just a matter of building off of that,” Mason stated. 

Alongside the high expectations for the teams is the even higher hope from runners and coaches that they can rise to the occasion and bring more gold into MCC’s trophy collection by securing another championship.