HOUSTON, Texas -
Kelvin Kimaiyo, a sophomore, earned the first gold medal of the season for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's track and field programs as the team competed at the Robert Platt Invitational Friday evening at the Yeoman Fieldhouse.
"It's a nice start to the season for him and I thought he did well and it worked out," said head coach Brent Ericksen. "It's great to have him back as it's been about a year since he's been able to compete for us."
Kimaiyo's mark of 8:30.74 in the men's 3,000m run led the way for the Islanders with two others earning top-10 finishes in the event. Graduate student
Juan Salinas III placed seventh with
Rogerio Gomez, a sophomore, coming in ninth. Competing for the women in the event was junior Sharon Kiporop, running her way to eighth with a mark of 10:21.20.
A trio of Islanders fought their way into the men's 60m hurdles finals with senior
Trpimir Siroki finishing best in fourth at 8.08s. Classmates Ke'Tavian Humber and
Daniel Armstrong earned seventh and eighth respectively, crossing the line at 8.17s and 8.25s.
Siroki earned third in the men's long jump, leaping a season-high 7.42m.
Sean Majors, a graduate student, missed finals by one spot with a mark of 6.95m.
Jamal Dawson, a sophomore, placed third in the men's high jump with a personal best height of 2.00m to move up to sixth all-time in program history.
"Jamal going 2.00m in the high jump is a big mark and a mark that can score us a lot of points in conference," praised Ericksen.
Junior
Riley Cowan ran to a fourth-place finish in the women's 800m run with a time of 2:20.64. Within the realm of distance, graduate student
Faith Bett placed fifth in the women's one mile with junior
Enock Kimutai in ninth for the men.
Capri Wilson, a junior, picked up another top-10 finish for A&M-Corpus Christi in tenth in the women's 60m dash. She ran a time of 7.73 seconds in the semifinals after sitting victorious in her heat.
Discussing the meet as a whole, Ericksen remarked, "I think we did better this week and figured it out a little bit. We had a lot of marks that were better and that's what we were looking for."
A&M-Corpus Christi has a week to recoup before traveling north to the Texas Tech Open and Multis next Friday and Saturday in Lubbock, Texas.
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