GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The University of California, Merced men's and women's cross country teams took to the starting line at the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge on Saturday morning in their final meet of the regular season. The largest NAIA meet of the year was hosted by Aquinas College at Riverside Park.
Two Bobcats on each side placed in the Top 100 with Elizette Ysais and Jonathan Chavez highlighting the morning.
Ysais finished 24th overall in the field of 189 and completed the 5k in 19:09.4. Jaydah Aguilar placed 100th with a time of 20:33.
Brieanna Anderson (130th/21:01), Kayley Betancourt (140th/21:15), and Berlin La Munyon (159th/21:45) were the Bobcats 3-5 scorers on the women's side. Betancourt ran a 5k personal best. Head coach Vicente Velarde's squad finished 21st as a team.
Chavez led the men's team with a 36th place finish clocking an 8k time of 25:31.5. Sharvin Manjrekar ran the course in 25:48 to finish 57th, while Alberto Alves was the Bobcats third finisher and placed 128th with a time 26:46.
Derrick Pickrel (157th/27:07) and Noah Vasquez (158th/27:08) put together nearly identical finishes to round out the Bobcats men's scorers. UC Merced finished 18th as a team.
Up next, UC Merced will host the California Pacific Conference Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno, Calif., on Monday, October 30. The men's race is scheduled to begin at 9:30am with the women slated to start at 10:30am.