STILLWATER, OKLAHOMA – The Incarnate Word men's cross country team had a solid eighth place finish at the 76^th Annual Oklahoma State Cowboy Stampede on Saturday morning. (Results)

The Cardinals put in a solid performance finishing eighth out of 22 teams. The top runner for the Cardinals was junior Alex Hernandez (Converse,TX/Wagner HS) who finished the 8K course with a time of 26:54.72 to take 19^th overall.  The next three finishers for UIW were all within six seconds of each other: sophomore Marcos Mora (Converse/Wagner HS) in 27.34.61, sophomore Sebastian Benavides (Lytle/Lytle HS) in 27:37.34 and freshman Caleb Gutierrez (New Braunfels/New Braunfel HS) in 27:40.38. The final point scorer for Incarnate Word was senior Solomon Rotich (Bomot, Kenya/Longisa HS) who finished in 87^th place with a time of 29:04.09.

Southwestern (Kan.) was the Men's College Division champion with 60 points as they were led by three runners in the top 10, including individual champion Frank Adelman.  Iowa Central Community College was second with 93 points and Allen County Community College was third with 125 points.

Head Coach Derek Riedel was impressed with the performance from his top finisher. “Alex Hernandez ran a great race. He dropped 30 seconds from his personal record last year even on a course that was more difficult than last year's version,” Riedel said.  “He dug down deep and overcame the pain at the end of the race to finish strong.”

The Cardinals will return to action next week as they host the 7^th annual UIW Invitational on October 6^th. The races will take place at Live Oak City Park starting at 8:00 a.m. 
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