ROCKLIN, Calif. - Jonathan Chavez won his first career race and both the University of California, Merced men's and women's cross country teams placed second on Saturday morning at the Warrior Invitational on the William Jessup University Cross Country Course.
Chavez won the race with a personal best 8K time of 25:32 and finished eleven seconds ahead of the runner-up. He is the Bobcats first men's cross country runner to win a race since 2018 and is the sixth ever in program history. Chavez's time was the fifth best in program history.
The women were first to run on Saturday and the Bobcats placed two in the top five and another in the top ten. Alexandra Lopez was UC Merced's top finisher, clocking a 5K time of 20:09 to take fourth overall. Lopez's finish was her best of the season and she moves into a tie with Sofia Rios for second place in program history with seven career top-ten finishes.
Elizette Ysais crossed the finish line one spot behind Lopez with a time of 20:22 for her fourth straight top ten finish of the season, second top five finish. Anjaneesa Ward (10th/21:01), Carissa Estrada (12th/21:09) and Jaydah Aguilar (19th/22:09) helped the Bobcats clinch the team runner-up finish.
"Our women got started with their 5km race with Alex Lopez leading the team from start to finish," head coach Vicente Velarde said. "It was impressive seeing her hold on to her pacing through the entire race and finish as our lead runner, as she did last season at the same race. Elizette Ysais was making a great effort to close the gap between her and Alex, and the Arizona Christian runners but tripped with about 600m to go. Her resiliency to finish as well as she did was inspirational, and we know she'll be good to go for our Cal Pac Championships. Anjaneesa Ward and Carissa Estrada were the next to finish and I couldn't be prouder of both of their efforts. Not only in this race, but the entire season, both have improved to a point that we are competitive with nationally ranked teams. Our 5th scorer today was Jaydah Aguilar who's been steadily improving and has been reliable for us to be there this whole season."
The men's race followed with Chavez winning the individual title. Sharvin Manjrekar crossed second for the Bobcats, clocking a time of 26:09, good for fourth overall tying his best ever finish.
The Bobcats scoring was rounded out by Noah Vasquez (17th/27:20), Nick Montijo (22nd/27:32) and Alberto Alves (26th/27:55).
Esteban Sanchez made his collegiate debut in the meet.
"Our men's team came in knowing we needed to win this race but we fell short by 6 points," Velarde said. "I can't be disappointed in their efforts because I could see the fight that everyone gave. Jonathan Chavez got out hard and chased down the lead cyclist for the entire race for a solo effort win. Sharvin Manjrekar was battling for second place for four miles until it broke up a little bit where he was in 6th or 7th place with 100m to go. He had one of the most impressive finishing kicks I've ever seen and finished 4th with another solid time for his first collegiate season."
Up next, UC Merced will host the California Pacific Conference Championships on Friday, November 4 at Woodward Park in Fresno, Calif.
