HOUSTON, Texas – With quite the start to the final weekend of the indoor season, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track and field team amassed huge success between the Howie Ryan Invite and the Music City Challenge on Friday.
It was a one-and-done day at the Howie Ryan Invite where in the first four running events that A&M-Corpus Christi competed in, the Islanders had an athlete break into a top-10 record for the program in each one. The women's team especially showed out in Houston, as each athlete either set a new personal record or placed into a program top-10 list on the day.
Overall, there were 11 new PRs and 17 student-athletes breaking into a program's top-10 record.
"I am extremely proud of this team right now," said head coach Bryan Jackson. "The results are a product of this group holding themsevles accountable to showing up on race day with the right mindset and attitude towards competition. Today was the necessary spark of momentum that we needed!"
Opening the day was
Chloe Garcia Grafing in the 800m, who just squeaked in the program's top-10 with a 5:08.55. On the men's side,
Logan Rickey and Matthew Flores both set their new personal records for the event as Rickey crossed at 1:57.19 with Flores right behind at 1:57.26.
Rickey also set his new lifetime best in the mile, running a 4:15.83. It is a nine second improvement from his first race of the year.
Kate Brockman set her new personal best in the mile with a 5:11.20 time.
Capri Wilson made two new appearances on a top-10 list. It started with the 60m dash as Wilson became the first Islander to account for three of the program's 10 best marks after running a 7.70s in the event. From there, she ran a 25.14s 200m to rank eighth all-time. Simultaneously,
Nia Hampton crossed the finish line for her personal best of a 25.33s to tie the 10
th best program mark.
Setting personal bests in the 3k were
Rogerio Gomez (8:34.31), Landon Blankenship (8:36.01), and
Faith Ramos (10:25.70).
In the field events,
Myla Tate had herself a day to jump her personal bests in both the triple jump (12.04m) and the long jump (5.34m). Her triple jump marked placed her 5th all-time in the program, joining
Nyadhol Thichiot who also jumped her PR in the event. Her mark ranks at the top of the Southland Conference ad third in the program.
Jaiya Hodge also found her name back on the program's top-10 list for high jump after recording a 1.55m jump today.
Damacio Hooks also found success in the triple jump, going three-for-three in this year's indoor season of placing onto the program's top-10 record. Today, he leapt 14.44m to wedge in between his previous two performances and rank seventh all-time.
The group of
Erial Fontenot,
Yasmine Steele,
Khiah Lara-Turner, and
Riley Cowan ran a 3:56.78 in the 4x400m relay, placing eighth all-time in the program. It completed the feat of every Islander woman either breaking a personal best or into a program top-10 list after Steele and Fontenot ranked in the top-10 for the 400m and Cowan ran the ninth best time in the 800m.
Capping the successful day was graduate
Dennis Kipngeno and senior
Enock Kimutai at the Music City Challenge as the two ended the night placing on the program's top-10 for the 5k. Kipngeno ended eighth overall at the meet with a 14:14.17 time for third all-time in Islanders history. Kimutai finished at 14:50.40 to earn ninth all-time in the program.
"There were many highlights today, but the two that stood out to me are Logan and Nyadhol. Logan's continued success in the mile has shown he has grown so much as a competitor this season and Nyadhol in the triple jump, she is really starting the put the pieces together!" said Jackson.
While the majority of the team has now wrapped up the regular indoor season, the Islanders in Nashville will compete for one more final day on Saturday.
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