HOUSTON, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team started off the 2025 season strong on Friday, reaching numerous different individual milestones at the Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational, hosted by the University of Houston.
"I am extremely proud of today's competitive efforts for an opening meet," said head coach
Bryan Jackson. "The throws group absolutely set the standard for this team this weekend. I am looking forward to building off this effort when we go to Texas A&M in two weeks."
As Jackson mentioned, the story of the day for the Islanders was the stellar showing of their throwers in the first meet under new throws coach
Andy Glass, beginning with a pair of historic performances in the women's weight throw from junior
Cyan Green and sophomore
Breyunna Dowell. In their first-ever meet as Islanders, the two managed to rewrite the record books, taking the top two spots in program history in the event with throws of 20.33m and 19.26m respectively. This was good for second and fourth among all competitors, and it vaulted them up to ninth and 22
nd in Division I through the early goings of the season.
Green and Dowell weren't done after this, though, as they both came back with equally impressive efforts in the shot put. Green once again led the way, setting her second school record of the afternoon with a mark of 14.79m. This placed the Georgia native in third place for the meet in the event, and it was the 33
rd best throw among D1 women's shot putters so far this year. Dowell was not far behind, throwing a distance of 12.93m to secure an eighth-place finish and get up to the No. 4 spot on A&M-Corpus Christi's all-time rankings.
The women weren't the only ones to make history on Friday, however, as sophomore
Emmanuel Ekuma followed their lead in climbing up the school leaderboards in his debut with the team. In similar fashion to Green, Ekuma set the new program record in the weight throw with a mark of 18.13, which helped him get on the podium in third place at the meet and gave him the 79
th best throw in Division I. He also showed out in the shot put as the day came to a close, getting up to fifth place in Islanders history after reaching 15.35m on his final attempt. Ekuma wasn't alone in cracking the top 10 in this event as well, as freshman
Riley Wampler also managed to break in at No. 9 in his debut with a toss of 12.90m.
The throwers weren't the only ones that performed well, as the Islanders also got some strong efforts in the other portions of the meet as well. The most impressive showing on that side of things came from senior
Nyadhol Thichiot, who got on the podium with a third-place finish in the women's triple jump after reaching 11.71m. This was just shy of her career-best of 12.17m set last season, and it was good for No. 72 this year among Division I athletes. There were also a pair of top 10 all-time finishes beyond this, with freshman
Edyn Breaux debuting at No. 6 in the 60m hurdles with a time of 9.17s and sophomore
Jayda Hough getting up to No. 9 after jumping 1.55m in the women's high jump.
The Islanders will now try to improve upon their nice start in their next meet, when they travel to College Station on January 24 and 25 to compete in the Ted Nelson Invite, hosted by Texas A&M.
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