On Saturday the Cal State Northridge men’s and women’s cross country team competed in the Asics/UC Irvine Invitational, their first meet of the year, and the women placed a high sixth while the men came in at 18th.

The Matador women were led by junior Lilyana Morejon, who finished an impressive third in the 5k race, with a time of 17:26.80. Morejon was the leader for the most part of the race, Dallon Williams of Cal State San Marcos finished in first. Behind Morejon was junior transfer Zitalic Ley, who finished in 26th place with a time of 18:34.80.

The CSUN women had an average time of 18:44.04 and overall time of 1:33.40.20. Head coach Don Strametz wasn’t surprise at how well the girls did.

“The girls ran extremely well because they had an outstanding summer,” Strametz said. “They had a phenomenal track season and that got them into a mindset to have a good cross country season.”

Unfortunately for the men their first meet didn’t go well.

“Again I wasn’t surprise with the men’s performance because they didn’t have a good summer like the women did,” Strametz said. “I can give them a lay out of work outs but they got to want to them.”

The highest finisher for the men in the 8k was Juan Olea, who came in at 69th place and clocked in at 26:55.80.

CSUN next meet is Saturday in the UC Riverside Invitational.