Arakelyan and Achten Etch Names in Record Books at UC Riverside Invitational

Saturday, September 19

Riverside, Calif

California State University at Northridge

UC Riverside Invitational

Complete Results

Photo by: Chuck Marvel

Arakelyan and Achten Etch Names in Record Books at UC Riverside Invitational

9/19/2026 1:02:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Lilit Arakelyan and Thomas Achten both cracked the top 10 in school history in their respective races at the UC Riverside Invitational at the Ag/Ops Cross Country Course Saturday morning.

Arakelyan led the way for the CSUN women. Her time of 20:29.7 was good for the third fastest 6k time in school history as she finished in the top-five at fifth place out of 271 runners.

Achten ran the third fastest 8k time in school history on the men's side with his mark of 24:26.9. That was good for 38th place.

WOMEN
CSUN finished 26th overall with a score of 703. UC Irvine finished in first overall with 65 points. The Anteaters had runners that finished first and fourth.

Behind Arakelyan, the next runner to finish for the Matadors was Brianna Torres. Torres's time of 22:14.2 was good for 173rd place. Nadia Munoz finished in 213th place with a time of 22:44.6. Zyanya Torres finished in 220th place at 22:50.7. Citlaly Ruiz rounded out the group with a time of 23:18.9.

MEN
The CSUN men finished in 15th place with 389 points. Southern Utah finished in first overall with a score of 49 and three runners in the top 12.

After Achten, Elijah Stenberg finished in 82nd place with a time of 24:56.2. Steven Valadez finished in 89th place with a time of 24:58.4. Erick Leal finished in 96th place with a time of 25:04.8.

Luis Torres Orrala finished in 119th place with a time of 25:16.9. Diego Rodriguez finished in 138th place with a time of 25:28.4.

ACCORDING TO COACH JASON ZARB-COUSIN
I thought we performed well overall. On the women's side, we are improving each week in hopes to be at our best in October and November when it really counts. On the men's side, we were working on being more aggressive earlier in the race which we did well. We do have to work on our gap time which I think limited us a little today. It is still early and we are in a good place, we just need to continue to work on improving our fitness and pack running in the next month. Lilit had the performance of the day running #3 all-time just 2 seconds from a school record, and a minute faster than she has ever run before. She has put in an incredible amount of work and it is paying off."

UP NEXT
CSUN will return to the same course for the Highlander Classic on Oct. 17.

SCHEDULE NOTE
CSUN will no longer run in The Master's Invitational on Oct. 3.