CERES, Calif. – University of California, Merced women's cross country junior Leslie Aquino broke the program's 6k record in the 2026 season opener on Saturday night at the Kim Duyst Twilight. Sharvin Manjrekar led UC Merced men's cross country in the race hosted by Stanislaus State at River Oaks Golf Course.

Aquino crossed the finish line in 21:46.8, besting the previous 6k record set by Elizette Ysais on October 15, 2022. Aquino, who also holds three records on the track, finished 12^th in the field for the Bobcats first top 15 finish at Kim Duyst since Ysais in 2023.

Delia Rodriguez came in next for the Bobcats in her collegiate cross country debut and turned in the third fastest 6k time in program history in 22:17.9. She placed 21^st in the field.

Freshman Maitha Alradaei landed in the top ten record books in her collegiate debut with the Bobcats ninth ever fastest 6k time, racing 23:31.

Irene Martinez (59^th/24:56.4) and Itzel D. Alonzo-Andrade (61^st/26:47) completed the Bobcats scoring. Alonzo-Andrade also made her collegiate debut, as did Presley Oliver (64^th/28:04.6) and Gigiana Baker (65^th/28:10.6). Ciarra Cabrera-Martinez (67^th/28:56.1) made her Kim Duyst Twilight debut.

Manjrekar led the men's team in his first cross country race since his 2024 All-American performance at the NAIA National Championships. Manjrekar took 32^nd overall on Saturday with a time of 25:51.4. 

Buffalo Soito's collegiate cross country debut saw him register a time of 25:58.9, good for a 36^th place finish. Jorge Mandujano raced in 26:11.2 and crossed the finish line 49^th overall. Both Soito (5^th) and Mandujano (9^th) now sit on the program's top ten Kim Duyst Invite list with their times.

Cole Rommelfanger (54^th/26:15.1) and Kitto Gonzalez (57^th/26:18.6) turned in a scoring performance to round out the Bobcats top five. Miguel Rebollo Estrada (86^th/28:03) made his collegiate debut.

UC Merced men's cross country finished fifth overall in the ten-team field, while UC Merced's women took fifth out of seven teams.

Head coach Vicente Velarde on the women's race:

"Leslie Aquino ran amazingly well for this being a tough week. We've been excited to see where she can be and breaking our school record was on our list of possibilities. Even with that performance we still expected a bit more from her but she along with a majority of our team was sick this week so that adds to how impressive it was to see her run as fast as she did. Leslie ran faster than our 5km school record by 40 seconds during the race. Delia Rodriguez as well impressed with our fastest ever 6km debut. It's been awesome to see both of those women pushing each other in practices and developing a culture with so many new faces to our women's team. We're missing several key contributors that would have made a big impact last night but we're hoping to get them in our race lineups over the next few races.

Velarde on the men's race:

"A focus for our men's team this year is having a close spread for our scoring runners. They accomplished that goal and it was great to see a solid pack of runners through the first half. The second half had several pairs of our men, and it was nice to see them running together. Sometimes athletes get caught up in the individual wins, but these guys were communicating throughout the race and pulling each other along to run faster together. It's a good representation of the men's culture that we've built over the years. This was our toughest week of training going into this race so it will be nice to see how we do on fresh legs next weekend at the UC Riverside Invite."

"It was great watching the teams compete. The Kim Duyst Invite is always a great measure of how the past couple of weeks have been going."

Looking ahead, UC Merced will compete at the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday, September 19 at the UCR Agricultural Operations Course in Riverside, Calif.