HOUSTON, Texas—Ceyda Bayur and John Klein led the Northwestern State cross country teams during their second meet of the season at the Rice Invitational.

Bayur, a sophomore from Eskieshir, Turkey, ran a 16:33.8 in the 4k to place 37^th out of 86 runners to lead the Lady Demons.

On the men's side, Klein ran a 17:57.0 to place 63^rd out of 105 competitors to pace the Demons.

"I thought both the men's and women's teams performed better than last week all across the board," head coach Dillon Dawson said. "John (Klein) and Ceyda (Bayur) continued to lead the way for their respective squads.

"I was especially pleased with the women's team today. From front to back they all looked much stronger and competed well."

On the women's side, NSU finished ninth out of 10 teams with 230 points. Lamar edged out Rice, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Stephen F. Austin for the win.

The top five scores from each team are calculated with the lower score being better.

The men finished 12^th out of 12 teams with 300 points. Rice dominated the field with just 22 points. The next closest was SFA with a 74.

Leah Thompson finished right behind Bayur in NSU athletes, placing 44^th with a time of 16:59.7.

The freshmen rounded out the top five Lady Demons with Lalaina Wood placing 63^rd with a 18:11.3, Makaya Damon came in 71^st with a 19:06.3 and Samantha Todaro finished right behind her in 72^nd place with a time of 19:19.8.

Behind Klein on the men's side, Conner Mackie finished 71^st with a time of 18:05.9. Korbin Shumate placed 77^th with a 18:18.3 to finish third among Demons and Brian Norton (18:59.6) finished 89^th and Robert Norton (20:05.4) placed 94^th.

The teams stay in-state for their third meet of the season when they travel to Baton Rouge for the LSU Invitational on Sept. 15.