HAMMOND, La. – Junior Ebony Collins earned the title in the 200-meter dash and a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash to highlight the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track and field team's final day of the 2015 Southland Conference Outdoor Championships. Collins set a school record in the 100 with her performance, one of three school records to fall on day three of the event.
The women's side finished in eighth place with 45 points, while the men posted a 12th-place finish at the event. For the women, it marked their best finish since 2012, when the team scored 50 points and tied for seventh at the championships. Stephen F. Austin won both the men's and the women's titles at the conference meet, while Sam Houston State was the runner-up on both sides.
"The women had a really good showing, led by Ebony's performance in both the 100 and 200," head coach Shawn Flanagan said. "We had good strength in the throws from Brandi Huff along with Kaelin Simmons. The relays really scored well also, we were just very strong all-around.
"On the men's side," he continued, "Angelo Garland dealing with an injury really hurt our overall score, both for him in the 400 and the 4x400 relay. Our performance in the 400 hurdles was huge, and we have a lot of freshmen and sophomores who, though they didn't score, had really good performances. I'm really optimistic about where we're at and we know the path we need to take to go forward."
Collins' performance in the 100 was among the best in school history in the sprints, as she became the first Islander to place in the top two in the 100-meter dash. She was narrowly edged for the title by McNeese State's Simone Johnson, who crossed the line in 11.55, just .04 ahead of Collins.
But she was not done, as just an hour later she lined up for the 200 and ran her way to first place, becoming the first Islanders woman to earn a Southland title in a sprinting event. Her time of 23.99 was just shy of her personal-best school record of 23.93 that she turned in at last month's Michael Johnson Classic.
The Islanders men got a pair of strong performances in the 400-meter hurdles, with freshman Kemar Mowatt posting a school-record and personal-best time of 51.13 to finish in third place in the event. Jackson Davis also recorded a personal best in the event, and his time of 52.72 was good enough for a sixth-place finish, as the duo earned nine points for the Islanders in the event.
Kerissa Wiley delivered a third-place finish in the high jump for the Islanders by clearing 1.70 meters on her first attempt at that height. She narrowly missed clearing her personal-best 1.74 on her three attempts, but still earned eight points for her team with the performance. Marisa Ellis also participated, but was unable to clear 1.56 meters on her first attempt.
The day started out strong for the Islanders, with Kaelin Simmons posting a sixth-place finish in the discus with a distance of 45.49 meters to collect three points for her squad. Omesha Locke finished 13th in the event as well, throwing the discus a distance of 38.72. On the men's side of the discus, Ben Clark delivered a throw of 42.27 to finish 14th and Diego Gomez posted a personal-best distance of 40.30 for a 16th-place finish.
In the relays, the Islanders women collected a seventh-place finish in the 4x100 meter relay. The foursome of Kirby Miller, Tashonna Williams, Chloe Young and Collins posted a time of 46.30, coming just .04 shy of a top-five performance. The men's 4x100 team of Dustin Smith, Kemar Mowatt, Andres Salazar and Javier Reyes came in 10th with a time of 41.84.
As for the 4x400, the women's foursome of Williams, Jasmine McCoy, Young and Sha'Nique Spearman turned in a time of 3:53.69, good for a sixth-place finish and three points for the team. The men's quartet of Salazar, Mowatt, Reyes and Angelo Garland delivered a seventh-place finish, coming in with a time of 3:12.81.
Two Islanders competed in the 800-meter finals, with Will Maraggia taking part on the men's side and Jasmine McCoy for the women. Each of the two finished eighth to earn a point, with Maraggia's time of 1:53.81 a new personal best for the freshman. McCoy carded a time of 2:22.61 in the event. Alex Rossi was the lone runner for the Islanders to take part in the 1500-meter finals, and the Corpus Christi native finished in a time of 5:11.07 to place 12th in the event.
In the women's 5000, Vanessa Galindo led the Islanders with a season-best 18:56.63 to come in 17th, while Liz Romo (21st, 19:13.34), Carissa Piñon (32nd, 20:00.24) and Nancy Jepkemboi (39th, 22:00.17) also took part in the event. On the men's side of the 5000, Daniel Guerrero's 19th-place finish in 15:46.50 led the way, with Cesar Gonzalez (22nd, 16:02.11), Logan Pittdman (23rd, 16:02.41), Jordan Wright (31st, 16:33.72) and Edgar Martinez (34th, 16:44.23) rounding out the Islanders taking part in the event.
Jacob Sprague took part in the men's pole vault for the Islanders, clearing a height of 4.37 meters, a school record and a new personal best, to finish in a tie for 12th place.
The Islanders will find out next week which student-athletes have advanced to the NCAA West Regional on May 28-30, in Austin, Texas. Collins' time in the 100 and Mowatt's time in the 400 hurdles both currently project to earn them regional berths.
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