LAKE CHARLES, La. - Three top-10 finishers led the University of the Incarnate Word women's cross country team to a third-consecutive second-place finish to open the 2026 season, this one coming at the McNeese State Cowboy Stampede Saturday morning.
The Cardinals, who also landed in the runner-up spot at the
UIW Twilight and
UIW Invitational, finished Saturday with 44 points. They finished with a total time of 1:28.26 an an average of 17:42.
Louisiana-Lafayette took the top spot with 26 points while McNeese was in third with 63. Northwestern State (121) and Southern (141) rounded out the scoring at the five-team event.
Most impressively, all eight members of the UIW women's team who finished on Saturday ran personal-record 5K times.
The headliner of the group was
Sofia Cantor, who came in third place. After running a PRÂ time of 17:45 at the UIW Invitational, Cantor easily topped that mark Saturday, finishing in 17:10.8.
Emily Torres and
Oceane Cercueil also landed in the top-10, placing eighth and 10th respectively. Torres ran a 17:28.6, Cercueil a 17:49.8.
Just behind them in the top-15 were
Maya Schuler (11th, 17:52.3),
Sophia Keiser (12th, 18:04.6),
Pilar Rivaya-Figaredo (14th, 18:09.4) and
Alyssa Laspada (15th, 18:10.9).
Elsewhere,
Marie Vazeilles was 16th in 18:20.9,
Emily Shook 18th in 18:32.8 and
Didi Garcia 28th in 19:29.7.
UIW will return to the same course, the Derbonne Multisports Complex, on Oct. 30 for the Southland Conference Championships. Prior to that, the Cardinals will have one more tune-up, as they'll travel to College Station for the Arturo Barrios Invitational on Oct. 30.
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