LAKE CHARLES, La. - A first-place run by Christian Castro-Cruz was the highlight of the day for the University of the Incarnate Word men's cross country, team, which narrowly took second at the McNeese Cowboy Stampede.

The Cardinals finished with 34 points, just behind winning McNeese, which finished with 30. Louisiana-Lafayette was a distant third with a score of 77.

As was the case with the UIW women, every member of the men's team that finished Saturday with a personal-best time, with 14 Cardinals hitting four-mile high marks.

Leading that group was Castro-Cruz, who crossed the line in 18:51.1. He came in just under three seconds ahead of Gregory Martin of McNeese, who finished in a flat 18:54.

Ethan Malesich had a great finish as well, placing third in 19:03.4, while Jeremiah Garcia also landed in the top-10, placing seventh in 19:17.

Anthony Zapata (11th, 19:26.6) and Jared Laverty (12th, 19:27.8) completed the scoring.

Five others finished in the top 20 for UIW, those racers being Joshua Odums in 14th (19:54.7), Michael Casso in 15th (19:57.1), Luis Tovar in 17th (20:01.5), Luca Martin in 18th (20:02.2) and Diego Romero in 20th (20:04.4).

Completing the day for UIW in positions 26-29 were Kristopher Strong (20:42.4), David Sanchez (20:45.1), Kevin Hernandez (20:48.9) and Bo Snapp (20:57.8).

The Cardinals will return to the same course, the Derbonne Multisports Complex, on Oct. 30 for the Southland Conference Championships. Prior to that, they will have one more tune-up, as they'll travel to College Station for the Texas A&M Arturo Barrios Invitational on Oct. 30.