SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Elizette Ysais' 6K program record time of 21:56.9 highlighted a strong day for the University of California, Merced women's and men's cross country teams on Saturday at Baylands Park as part of the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational.
Ysais bested the previous program record by 35 seconds, which had been held by Sofia Rios for the last eight years.
In the race, Ysais' placed tenth overall in the field of 185 total runners for her third top ten finish in as many meets this season.
Alexandra Lopez and Anjaneesa Ward also fared well and posted top five program times for the women, while Jonathan Chavez highlighted the men's 8K race with a personal best and a top six program time of 25:33.9 in his season debut.
Overall, the women's team set a new 6K team record with an average time of 23:08 for the Bobcats five scorers. The Bobcats finished fifth out of 17 teams.
Ysais (10th/21:56) was followed by Lopez (40th/22:57), Ward (41st/22:59), Carissa Estrada (60th/23:37) and Jaydah Aguilar (96th/24:11). Lopez and Ward now hold the third and fourth spots on the program's top 10 6K chart, while Estrada is now sixth. Aguilar's time was a 6K personal best.
Other notables for the women include Emily Gonzales and Kayley Betancourt clocking 6K personal best's. Samantha Tran made her collegiate debut.
"The women continue to impress me with their performances week by week," head coach Vicente Velarde said. "Elizette (Ysais) didn't get out to start the race as I would have hoped for, but it didn't take her long to find her teammate Alexandra (Lopez) and get through a fast first mile. She pushed herself through the 2nd and 3rd miles and was right outside the top-10 coming into the final straightaway where she needed to pass 2 runners for the top-10 finish. Eli's time of 21:56 broke the previous 6km school record set by Sofia Rios (22:31) which was the highlight of the weekend. Lopez and Ward had two completely different approaches to the race but had a :02 difference for the outcome of their races. Carissa (Estrada) ran just about one of the best collegiate races of her life and was able to close a big gap that we have between our 3-4. Each one of the ladies had a great finishing kick and it gave us about a 10-point drop just in the final 150 meters. Our team time average of 23:08 for the women is just a little bit off where nationally ranked teams have finished in the past and gone on to finish anywhere from 15-27 at the national championships."
The men's team placed eighth out of 17 teams. The 8K race saw a field of 241.
Chavez impressed in his season debut with a personal best time of 25:33 which was good for 40th in the field and good for the sixth spot on the program's all-time top ten list. The Hilmar, Calif., native shaved 18 seconds off his previous top time.
Sharvin Manjrekar finished 57th overall and clocked a time of 25:58 to take hold of the eighth spot on the program's top ten list.
Noah Vasquez (82nd/26:24), Alberto Alves (110th/27:00), and Nick Montijo (127th/27:21) also scored for UC Merced in the Bobcats fastest ever race under Velarde.
Vasquez turned in a personal best. Alves' race was his first in a UC Merced uniform.
"We had just about as good of a day as we could have asked for," Velarde said. "Jonathan (Chavez) and Sharvin (Manjrekar) got out a little harder than they anticipated but were able to hold on and have a good finish. Noah (Vasquez) quite possibly had the best performance I've seen from him in the past three seasons. He was determined to close our gap from 2-3 and he executed that as well as I could have hoped for. Alberto (Alves) was just cleared to compete yesterday, and he made an impact immediately as our number four scorer. Nick (Montijo) finished out the scoring for us and we were glad to see him step up on a day where we were missing one of our top guys with Derrick Pickrel being out this week. After a tough week, I was happy and inspired to see it all come together and see that we can hit times as expected from a team that is trying to make it to the national meet."
Looking ahead, UC Merced will compete at the Warrior Invitational hosted by William Jessup University in Rocklin, Calif., on Saturday, October 22.
