Arakelyan and Stenberg Lead the Way For Matadors at Wave Invite

MALIBU, Calif --- CSUN opened the 2025 cross country season at Pepperdine's Waves Invitational at Alumni Park on Friday. The Women finished third overall out of seven teams with a 77 score while the men finished fourth overall out of six teams with an 85 score.

Junior Lilit Arakelyan paced the women with the fastest 4K time in school history as she finished seventh overall. Sophomore Elijah Stenberg led the men and registered the sixth fasted 6K time in school history, finishing 11th overall.

MEN
Stenberg, in his Matadors' debut, finished the meet with the sixth fastest 6K time in school history, as he ran a 18:46.6 time, good enough for 11th place. Stenberg wasn't the only Matador etching their names in the record books. Sophomore Thomas Achten ran a time of 18:53.3, good enough for 15th place, while he himself posted the seventh fastest 6K time in school history. Then, registering the eighth fastest time in school history was freshman Adam Divinity. Divinity finished the invite with a time of 18:55.7, good enough for 17th place. Senior Camilo Torres finished in 20th place with a 19:04.6 time. Lastly, Cesar
Cuevas finished with a 19:13.2 time to round out the top five.

The other finishers for the Men are as follows: Ramiro Mateos finished 26th with a time of 19:24.7. Darrick Jacob Jr. finished 30th with a time of 19:38.1. Diego Rodriguez finished 33th with a time of 19:42.4. Omar Heredia finished right behind him at 34 with a time of 20:02.3. Lastly, Raul Verges finished 40th with a time of 20:35.8

UC Santa Barbara won the men's side with a score of 40. Pepperdine was second with a score of 46.

WOMEN
Many top-10 finishes in CSUN history happened Friday night. Arakelyan, in her Matadors debut, scored the fastest 4K time in school history with a time of 13:59.6. That time was good enough for seventh overall. Senior Ami Jacobsen is now the holder of the second fastest 4k time in school history, as she eclipsed the previous record. Her time of 14:16.7 was good enough for 12th overall. Sakura Divecchio finished with a time of 14:36.0, to finish with 17th place points (20th overall).

Junior Nadia Munoz cracks the top-10 as well with her time of 14:44.7, good enough for 20th place points (26th overall) in the Invite. Junior Briana Torres rounded out the top five, her time of 14:47.7 was good for 21st place points (29th overall) on the day.

The other finishers for the women are as follows: Yadira Arnold and Savannah Ganter finished at 32nd and 33rd respectively. Arnold's time was 14:53.3 and Ganter's time was 14:55.2. Ailani Salazar finished at 41st place with a 15:21.5 time. Citlaly Ruiz was 43rd at 15:26.6, Zyanya Torres was 46th at 15:40.5. Lastly, Kahlai Cruser was 60th with a time of 17:05.4

UC Santa Barbara won the women's meet with a score of 32. Long Beach State got second with 55 and CSUN finished third with 77.

ACCORDING TO COACH JASON ZARB-COUSIN
"Both teams ran exceptionally well. We improved significantly from last year at this time. We have a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks before our next competition. Overall, a very solid start to the season."

UP NEXT
The Matadors will compete at the Kim Duyst Twilight taking place at River Oaks Golf Course in Turlock, Calif. on Saturday, September 13th.

Arakelyan and Stenberg Lead the Way For Matadors at Wave Invite

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Players Mentioned

Thomas Achten

Lilit Arakelyan

Yadira Arnold

Kahlai Cruser

Sakura Divecchio

Adam Divinity

Savannah Ganter

Omar Heredia

Ramiro Mateos

Nadia Munoz

Diego Rodriguez

Citlaly Ruiz

Elijah Stenberg

Camilo Torres

Zyanya Torres

Ailani Valiente

Raul Verges