HOUSTON, Texas – Freshman
Damacio Hooks of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team got the outdoor season started with a bang as he came away with first place in the triple jump to highlight the Victor Lopez Invite hosted by Rice.
Hooks extended a quality indoor season into the outdoor, as he has now placed in the program's top-10 record for the triple jump in every regular season meet this year. His 14.69m jump won him the event at Rice in addition to placing him third all-time in the outdoor record book for the Islanders.
He highlighted a solid outing from the jumper group in the outdoor opener. In the men's long jump, freshman
King White placed eighth at 6.79m while senior
Enoch Antwi finished 10
th with a 6.75m jump. On the women's side, sophomore
Myla Tate, who is coming off a conference title with gold in the triple jump, finished eighth in the event this weekend at 11.77m behind
Nyadhol Thichiot who placed fifth with a 12.28m jump.
"As far as opening weekends go, this was a strong one," said first-year head coach Bryan Jackson. "The jumper group showed out, highlighted by Damacio winning the triple jump. Khiah (400m) and Nia (200m) really had a great showing out of the sprinter group along with helping run our fastest 4x400m of the year. The distance group competed very well, with several PRs, but more importantly they well executed competitive running."
In the 400m dash, sophomore
Khiah Lara-Turner led the Islanders with a 56.83s time not just at the meet, but on the year as it marked her personal best. Senior
Capri Wilson finished fourth with a 12.00s 100m race closely followed by freshman
Nia Hampton who came out with a 12.17s time for sixth place.
Hampton also turned in a seventh-place finish in the 200m out of 39 after racing a 24.47s.
Rounding out the women's highlights was the 4x400m as Lara-Turner and Hampton joined sophomore
Erial Fontenot and senior
Yasmine Steele to race the season-best 3:54.62 time to finish second in the event.
The men showed more depth in the distance group as Landon Blankenship finished fourth overall in the men's 3000m steeplechase at 9:26.62. Roy Gomez raced the 5000m for the first time and came in seventh out of 20 with a 14:55.42 time.
"I'm looking forward to how we grow as competitors throughout the outdoor season," said Jackson.
The Islanders will have a busy upcoming weekend to continue the outdoor season at some competitive meets. They will split between three meets, sending a group to the Texas Relays Wednesday through Saturday, one group to Texas State's Bobcat Invitational Thursday through Saturday, and another one to the Stanford Invite Friday and Saturday.
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