CERES, Calif. – The University of California, Merced men's and women's cross country teams combined for a solid performance at the Kim Duyst Twilight Meet at River Oaks Golf Course on Saturday night.
The men placed second in their first 8K of the season with a stellar team average of 25:45, while the women placed fifth in their first 6K.
Jonathan Chavez led the way with the second best time in program history, running the race in a PR time of 25:03 which placed him sixth in the field overall. The Hilmar, Calif., native beat his previous best time by 22 seconds.
Sharvin Manjrekar also set a PR and placed eleventh overall crossing the finish line in 25:21. His time gave him possession of fifth on the program's all-time top ten list.
Chavez and Manjrekar set the tone for the Bobcats and head coach Vicente Velarde saw six returners in all register a personal best time.
The next Bobcat to cross the finish line was Derrick Pickrel, who posted a PR time of 25:56 , good for 16th overall.
Alberto Alves and Noah Vasquez rounded out the top five finishers for UC Merced, clocking PR times of 26:09 and 26:14 to finish 20th and 22nd in the field, respectively.
In the women's 6K, Elizette Ysais highlighted the Bobcats efforts finishing in 12th place with a time of 23:25.
Jaydah Aguilar collected a 21st place finish with a run of 24:28.
Kayley Betancourt (29th/25:52), Berlin La Munyon (33rd/26:51), and Sinthya Duran rounded out the Bobcats scoring. La Munyon's race was the first of her collegiate career. Jailyn Batis also made her collegiate debut.
What Vicente Velarde had to say:
"Saturday night was a great experience all around but it was very interesting to be running so late after a lightning delay from random thunderstorms in the area. Our women's race started at 9:30pm against solid competition and we performed on average a lot better than the 5km distance from last week at the Fresno Invitational. It's a step in the right direction and having Berlin La Munyon and Jailyn Batis make their collegiate debut made it more of a special night. I have to give Brieanna Anderson my biggest praise as just earlier in the day she completed her LSAT. It's great to see our athletes being able to balance athletics and career goals as well as they have. Elizette Ysais was able to set our Kim Duyst women's record and place 12th overall in a field that included one of the top NCAA D2 teams in the nation. We still have a lot of work to do but I'm glad our women are starting to put it all together."
"Our men's team executed the race plan very well. They focused on running in pairs at manageable paces for the first half of the race. It led to our men running one of the best team races we've had in program history. Our most recent competition here back in 2019 saw Guillermo Rivas run 25:45 as our top runner. Last night we had a team average of 25:45, which should push us into national rankings. This was also the first time Joshua Riley, Cole Rommelfanger and Elijah Lawrence raced the 8km distance and I am confident we will see all of them improving a lot throughout this season. Jonathan Chavez improved our Kim Duyst record from 25:45 to 25:03 with a 6th place finish.
It's great to see both sides managing to run well with the conservative start to training we've had this year. Our early season success has us feeling confident about where we can be by November."
