Two-time na­tion­al cross-coun­try cham­pi­on Tonya Nero will lead an 11-mem­ber na­tion­al team to the 2013 North Amer­i­can, Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (NACAC) Cross Coun­try Cham­pi­onships in Man­dev­ille, Ja­maica, on Sat­ur­day.

Nero cap­tured sil­ver in the women's 6K race at last year's cham­pi­onships, which took place at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain. The mul­ti­ple na­tion­al dis­tance record hold­er crossed the line in 20:32.42 to win this coun­try's first ever in­di­vid­ual mem­ber at the re­gion­al meet. Nero then led the women to sil­ver in the team race. Donicia An­toine, Tha­ia Gutier­rez and Mick­ay­la Ot­t­ley were the oth­er mem­bers. This year, Nero will be the lone fe­male mak­ing the trip and will be com­pet­ing in her third cham­pi­onship.

Na­tion­al men's cham­pi­ons Den­zil Ramirez is among five se­lect­ed in the men's 8K squad. Jules LaR­o­de, Richard Jones, Matthew Ha­gley and Kendis Bullard are the oth­er mem­bers. Ramirez led T&T men's to team bronze at the 2011 edi­tion held at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah. Ramirez was the best fin­ish­er fin­ish­ing 17th (25:53.4).

2011/2012 na­tion­al ju­nior win­ner Mar­shall and three-time Carif­ta cham­pi­on Mark Lon­don will spear­head the lo­cal charge in the ju­nior men's 6K event.

The pair, along with Ash­ton Gill, Jevon Joseph and Ra­mario Ro­driguez will be vy­ing for T&T's first medal in the ju­nior race.

NAAA trustee Dawn Wash­ing­ton will serve as man­ag­er with Julius Smart as coach and Brent El­der, mas­sage ther­a­pist. The team will leave on Fri­day and re­turn on Sun­day. NAAA as­sis­tant sec­re­tary Dex­ter Voisin is or­gan­i­sa­tion­al del­e­gate for the cham­pi­onships and left for Ja­maica yes­ter­day.