SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Jonathan Chavez broke the 8K school record while winning the race and the University of California, Merced men's cross country team finished third out of 19 teams to highlight the Bobcats day at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational on Saturday. Both UC Merced men's and women's cross country teams ran in the open race, rather than the invitational.
Chavez ran a time of 24:10.7, shattering the previous record of 24:39.1 that stood since 2018. Chavez has now taken at least 24 seconds off his personal-best each of the last three races, this time around resulting in the UC Merced all-time record. His race win was the third of his career, also winning the Ryan Nunez Bobcat Invitational in 2021 and the Cal Pac Championship a year ago.
Overall, three men's runners turned in personal best's that were good for program top ten times on Saturday morning. Sharvin Manjrekar clocked a time of 25:13.0 to finish 21st in the field, while Alberto Alves took 38th overall in 25:36.8. Those two times are third and ninth in program history, respectively.
The men's team beat NCAA Division One opponents Loyola Marymount and Saint Mary's College. The women's team also finished ahead of a NCAA Division One foe, beating Pepperdine by two spots.
"Our team had a great day today," head men's and women's cross country coach Vicente Velarde said. "Overall, the best day of the season for both men and women. We had three guys run big personal records which moved them up our top 10 chart for the 8km distance. It says a lot about the strength of our team to have four men that have been rewriting our top 10 list this semester. Jonathan Chavez breaking our school record was the highlight of the day. He looked relaxed for the paces he was hitting and I feel like we're seeing just the start of the best part of him this season. Sharvin Manjrekar's 25:13 and Alberto Alves' 25:36 were solid performances and it was nice rallying around those guys the rest of the day. Alberto Guevara made his race debut and he was able to learn a lot about the 8km distance today. We're excited to have him in our lineup for the rest of the season. Our total team time of 2:08:19 and average of 25:39 has set our new school record and it's a great accomplishment and confidence booster for the rest of this month."
Following Chavez, Manjrekar, and Alves to round out the men's scoring were Noah Vasquez (26:28/101st) and Derrick Pickrel (26:51/132nd).
Elizette Ysais led the UC Merced women placing 11th overall with a season-best time of 22:20.9.
Jaydah Aguilar clocked a 6K personal-best time of 23:38.9, good for a 46th place finish. Her mark moves her up to the seventh spot on the program's top ten 6K list.
Other scoring runners include Anjaneesa Ward (24:40/89th), Brieanna Anderson (25:04/109th), and Berlin La Munyon (25:35/130th). Anderson's 6K was a PR.
Other notables include Layla Muhammed and Alberto Guevara making their collegiate debut.
"For our women, it's all coming together at the right time," Velarde stated. "Elizette Ysais has continued dropping her 6km times all season and today ended up being her fastest time of the year and her being 11th place was the best finish so far this season. We had several women also hit personal records and Jaydah Aguilar was able to move up a couple of spots for our top 10 all time 6km marks. Layla Muhammed was able to make her debut and with only having about a month of training so far, I'm glad we have the next two weeks to get the extra fitness she'll need to run a solid race at Cal Pac."
"The ladies and I are really excited about the Great Lakes race coming up in Michigan being a 5km since we haven't raced that distance since the Fresno Invitational on September 1," Velarde said. "This change to 6km seems like it's benefiting our team as we have been a bit stronger at the longer distance in comparison to a lot of teams that have ran it so far. We should see some fast times in Michigan for both sides."
UC Merced will compete at the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge on Saturday, October 21 at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids, Mich.
