COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team wrapped up their time at the Ted Nelson Invitational with a very nice showing on Saturday, seeing seven different competitors make their way into the school's indoor record book and even more reach personal bests in their events throughout the day.
"I am very pleased with how this team is competing," said head coach
Bryan Jackson. "It is obviously leading to some great performances right now, but more importantly, it's going to lead us to being in a great spot come championship time. This team is hungry to continue their growth and get back to work for the next opportunity."
The best performance of the day for the Islanders came from the distance runners, with the group showing out in both the mile and the 800m. On the women's side, three different runners cracked into the program's top 10 in the former, including freshman
Phylis Kibet, who broke the school record that had stood for nearly six years by recording a time of 4:45.98. Beyond Kibet were another pair of freshmen in
Alicia Finnis and
Embla Hreimsdottir, who came in at third and fifth in program history with times of 4:55.75 and 4:58.24 respectively. In the meet, they all finished in the top 10 out of 24 finishers, with Kibet coming in at third, Finnis in seventh and Hreimsdottir in 10
th.
The men's mile also saw a new face crack the record book in junior
Ewan Wheelwright, who just snuck in in 10
th all-time after recording a time of 4:17.12. Freshman
Dominic Kiptum came in right behind Wheelwright in his first race since competing at the NCAA Championships in cross country, narrowly missing with a time of 4:19.34, and freshman
Kye Lowth rounded out the trio of solid performers after finishing in 4:21.53.
In the 800m, the Islanders saw two newcomers to the record book and one returner that improved on their career best. Two of these came from the women, with senior
Chloe Garcia Grafing posting a time of 2:17.31 for fifth place and senior
Kate Brockman coming in right behind at 2:18.37 to hold the sixth-place spot that she previously occupied. As for the men, freshman
Dillon Smith made a great first impression, debuting at third in program history in his first collegiate race in the event with a time of 1:52.76. This supplanted current senior
Emil Hajjaj, who on Saturday finished just a second and a half behind his previous best set in February of last year.
Beyond just the distance runners, the throwers also followed up their record-setting day on Friday night with another great showing. To kick off the afternoon, sophomore
Emmanuel Ekuma bested the mark he recorded in the shot put at the Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational two weeks ago, reaching 16.18m to move from fifth in Islanders history up to third. On the other side, senior
Emily Malouf made it back-to-back days breaking the program record book in her debut weekend with the team, this time getting up there in fifth in the shot put with a throw of 13.05m.
Not to be left out, the sprinters also had a newcomer show out in freshman
David Johnson, who recorded a time of 7.00s in the 60m. This was the fourth-best time in school history, and it sits just .08 seconds off of the record that has stood for over 20 years.
The Islanders will be in action next in two weeks, returning back to College Station for the Charlie Thomas Invitational, hosted by Texas A&M. Like this weekend, this meet will be a two-day event, starting on Friday, February 7 and continuing the next day on Saturday, February 8.
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