NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team concluded the 2026 Southland Conference Outdoor Championships on Saturday evening, earning eight more medals and two superlatives on the individual side and seeing both squads secure fifth place overall to finish in the top half of the conference once again.
On the team side of things, both the men and the women for the Islanders matched their placements from the Indoor Championships back in February. The former finished with 82 points in total in a massive improvement on their 48 that they recorded at the 2025 Outdoor Championships, while the latter tallied 91.5, a nearly identical mark to their 92 from a year ago.
In addition to this, the Islanders also had a pair of athletes honored after the conclusion of the meet, with
Elizabeth Khatevi being named the Women's Most Valuable Performer for the second year in a row and
Samson Black winning the Men's Co-Freshman of the Year alongside East Texas A&M's Cheyne West. For Khatevi, she repeated as the MVP after earning three different medals in Saturday's finale, helping her accumulate 24 points to lead all individuals on the women's side. She started her day off with a silver in the 1500m and a bronze in the 800m, and in her final race of the weekend, she took home the gold in the 5000m, surpassing Stephen F. Austin's Valentine Jemutai on the last lap and finishing with a time of 16:37.26 to set the new meet record and successfully defend her title in the distance event. When including both indoor and outdoor seasons, Khatevi has now earned nine different medals and seven golds across her four conference championships.
As for Black, he earned his award by finishing level with West at 14 total points, which he accomplished in a pair of different throwing events. After taking home a bronze medal in the hammer throw on Thursday, the freshman did even better in the discus to wrap things up, securing silver with a best throw of 53.07m. This mark came in Black's very last attempt, as after sitting just narrowly on the outskirts of the podium after five tosses, he came up clutch in his final try to jump two spots and secure the accolade in his first Outdoor Championships.
Beyond these two, A&M-Corpus Christi also had four other competitors reach the podium on the final day, with the first two coming on the field in the morning session. First,
Armando Rivera secured the first top three championship finish of his career with the team, avenging a narrow miss at the Indoor Championships by earning bronze this time around with a far leap of 14.94m. This capped off a year of strong growth for the sophomore, helping him rise seven spots from last year and improving on his mark of 13.88m at that meet by more than a full meter.
Also on the field,
Emmanuel Ekuma added to his already extensive collection of hardware, joining Black on the podium in the discus with a bronze after reaching 52.14m on his very first throw. This medal came after he had already took home silver in the shot put on Saturday, giving him seven medals in total for his career with the Islanders across four championship meets.
The last remaining medals came on the track in the second half of the evening, starting with a bronze from
Dillon Smith in the men's 800m in a repeat of his placement from the Indoor Championships. Just like three months ago, Smith made his way onto the podium in an electric final sprint, entering the home stretch in a crowded field and surpassing a pair of competitors to finish 26 milliseconds ahead of fourth-place Luke Parker of Lamar and just 24 milliseconds behind winner Raphael Aureau of HCU.
To wrap things up,
Mathayo Bundotich took home bronze himself in the men's 5000m in what was the final individual event of the meet. This marked Bundotich's second third place finish in a long-distance event during the weekend, as he also finished in the same spot in the 10000m on Thursday.
"I'm extremely proud of how competitively consistent this team is," Islanders head coach
Bryan Jackson said. "I don't think there were many other teams with as many champions or podium finishes as we had this weekend. I'm excited for the next steps for the program, as we will have several athletes competing in the NCAA rounds with the goal of advancing to those finals."
The Islanders will now wait to see who on the team will now qualify for the NCAA West Region First Round, which will take place on May 27-30 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Men's Standings
- Stephen F. Austin (163)
- Northwestern State (124)
- UIW (117)
- East Texas A&M (97)
- Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (81)
- Lamar (54)
- UTRGV (44)
- HCU (41)
- New Orleans (33)
- Southeastern Louisiana (30)
- McNeese (26)
- Nicholls (7)
Women's Standings
- Northwestern State (147.5)
- UTRGV (126)
- Stephen F. Austin (122)
- Lamar (98.5)
- Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (91.5)
- East Texas A&M (90)
- UIW (54)
- McNeese (33)
- Southeastern Louisiana (24)
- HCU (10.5)
- Nicholls (10)
- New Orleans (8)
Men's Individual Points Scorers
Emmanuel Ekuma: 18 (2
nd, shot put; 3
rd, discus; 5
th, hammer throw)
Samson Black: 14 (2
nd, discus; 3
rd, hammer throw)
Mathayo Bundotich: 12 (3
rd, 5000m; 3
rd, 10000m)
Chase Hight: 10 (1
st, javelin)
Dillon Smith: 6 (3
rd, 800m)
Armando Rivera: 6 (3
rd, triple jump)
Jordan Bowling: 6 (3
rd, javelin)
Dallas Freudenburg,
Kenya Ford,
Luke Bartnick &
Colin Benton: 4 (5
th, 4x100m relay)
Diego Canto, 3 (6
th, 10000m)
Riley Wampler, 3 (6
th, discus)
Women's Individual Points Scorers
Elizabeth Khatevi, 24 (1
st, 5000m; 2
nd, 1500m; 3
rd, 800m)
Alicia Finnis, 12 (2
nd, 10000m, 5
th, 5000m)
Phylis Kibet, 10 (4
th, 1500m; 4
th, 5000m)
Neele Heyne, 10 (1
st, 3000m steeplechase)
Natalia Rankin-Chitar, 10 (1
st, shot put)
Breyunna Dowell, 10 (1
st, hammer throw)
Cyan Green, 9 (4
th, hammer throw; 5
th, discus)
Faith Ramos, 4 (5
th, 10000m)
Embla Hreimsdottir, 1 (8
th, 1500m)
Kameron Huerta, 1 (8
th, triple jump)
Jayda Hough, 0.5 (T8th, high jump)
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