HOUSTON – Rick Platas and Bianca Bagwell led the way for the Concordia Texas Cross Country team, finishing as the squad's best runners at the Rice Invitational on Friday.
 
Platas and Bagwell repeated as the top runners on their respective sides, continuing the trend set last year as well as at the season-opening Tornado Watch Invitational.
 
At the meet, the men competed in a 6K race while the women ran a 4K, and the Tornados competed against 11 other teams.
 
Platas paced the men's squad, running to 47^th place out of 98 runners with a time of 20:54.50.
 
Bagwell, running in her first career 4K race, finished in 56th place after clocking in at 16:31.90.
 
On the men's side, the Tornados held the 10th spot in the standings as one of only two D-III teams competing.
 
Junior Jacob Ismir was the second CTX runner to finish, recording a time of 22:00.00 for 68th place, and Kamron Loera followed at 22:13.00 and 60th place.
 
Next, Jeremy Longoria crossed the finish line with a time of 22:34.80, good for 77th place, and Sam Stewart clocked in at 22:43.90 in 80th place.
 
Thomas Hughes and Daniel Bizimia finished consecutively, running a 23:02.50 and 23:02.70, respectively.
 
Newcomers Nathan Luevano and Jonathon Espinoza followed, recording respective times of 23:18.50 and 24:00.30.
 
Finally, Dylan Day ran to a time of 26:34.50 and Miguel Morales rounded out the CTX runners with a time of 27:17.50.
 
On the women's side, junior Meghan Kevil clocked in at 19:28.90, and Sophia West followed with a time of 20:13.90.
 
Lauren Rekward and Kendall Simpson capped off the CTX runners, running to respective times of 20:52.90 and 21:56.20.
 
With the Rice Invitational in the books, the Tornados will look to the Concordia Classic, their second home meet of the season. Competing on Sept. 24 in Pflugerville, Texas, the women will start the night at 7:45 pm and the men will follow at 8:30 pm.