AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team started one of its busiest weekends of the season off strong on Thursday, getting numerous different standout efforts between both the Bobcat Invitational in San Marcos and the 97
th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin.
The bulk of the roster for the Islanders competed at the Bobcat Invitational on Thursday, a group that included freshman
Alex Del Popolo, who put together the top performance of the day for the team at either meet. Del Popolo competed in the men's javelin throw in San Marcos and took home the silver medal in the event, reaching a best mark of 65.36m to vault himself all the way up to No. 23 in all of Division I so far in the young season. He also managed to become the new program record holder in the event, unseating teammate
Izac Canchola after the senior took over the top spot at the UTSA Invitational last week.
Beyond Del Popolo, A&M-Corpus Christi also got another strong effort in the field in San Marcos from senior
Emily Malouf, who continued her climb up the school's discus throw leaderboard by rising three spots up to No. 5 with a throw of 44.39m, an improvement of more than six meters on her high from last week. On the track, it was the Islanders' distance runners that showed out, starting with a pair of top 10 performances from freshman
Diego Canto and sophomore
Mathayo Kiptoo Bundotich in the men's 5000m. The former finished in seventh place at the meet with a time of 14:43.32 and the latter came in immediately behind with a time of 14:44.40, which helped them debut in eighth and ninth in program history in the event. Finally, freshman
Embla Hreimsdottir had a similar outing in the women's 800m, coming in at 11
th out of 70 competitors while also reaching the fifth spot in Islanders history after crossing the line in 2:14.60
Just a little bit north, the Islanders also competed well at the Texas Relays, starting with a nice showing from sophomore
Breyunna Dowell in the women's hammer throw. Dowell bested her mark from the outdoor season opener last week by nearly 11 meters on Thursday, going from 41.85m to 52.63m to rise two spots on the leaderboard in the event up to No. 3. With this performance, she now sits less than three meters behind all-time leader and teammate
Cyan Green, who broke the previous record at the UTSA Invitational a week ago.
Like at the other meet, the distance group also showed out in Austin, closing out the day with four more trips into the record book. Two of these efforts came in the same event, with freshmen
Elizabeth Khatevi and
Phylis Kibet reaching No. 2 and No. 4 in the women's 1500m with times of 4:29.05 and 4:31.98 respectively. Freshman
Alicia Finnis reached similar heights in the women's 5000m, finishing in 16:49.75 to debut at third in the event, and to cap things off on the men's side, freshman
Dillon Smith crossed the line in 1:51.84 in the 800m to take over the No. 5 spot in Islanders history.
The Islanders will now look to continue the positive momentum into the second day of both meets on Friday, kicking things off at the Bobcat Invitational at 10:00 a.m. before then getting underway at the Texas Relays one hour later.
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