AZUSA, Calif. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team followed up a nice first day at the Bryan Clay Invitational, hosted by Azusa Pacific University, with an even better showing on Thursday, setting two new school records and seeing five of its six competitors on the day break into the program's top 10 in their events.
The Islanders started things off with one event in the morning session of the meet, with freshman
Embla Hreimsdottir taking part in the women's 5,000m. Hreimsdottir crossed the line in this race in 17:16.92, which was good for 11
th place in her 27-person heat and 57
th overall out of 99 competitors. Her time also got her into the school's record books, settling in at No. 8 by the time the day was done.
Once the afternoon session rolled around, the Islanders then shifted to the 800m, starting with an excellent performance from freshman
Elizabeth Khatevi on the women's side. Khatevi improved upon her own program record set last weekend at the 44 Farms Team Invitational in the event, clocking nearly three seconds better than her personal best with a time of 2:07.53. This was good enough to emerge victorious in her heat, and it slotted her all the way up in 35
th place out of 127 athletes.
The other school record came on the opposite side of the same event, and it was accomplished by freshman
Philip Jensen e Castro, who just narrowly edged out the old benchmark set back in 2016 by finishing with a time of 1:50.41. This earned Jensen e Castro third place in his heat, and it secured him a finish of 55
th out of 133 competitors. Not far behind him was freshman
Dillon Smith, who rose up two spots to fourth in program history with a new personal best of 1:51.31.
The final session of the day came in the evening, when A&M-Corpus Christi closed things out with two more cracks at the women's 5,000m. Freshman
Alicia Finnis was first up, finishing just a few seconds off of her personal best set at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays last month after clocking a time of 16:55.24. Freshman
Phylis Kibet would then close things out on a high note in the penultimate event of the day, finishing her race in 16:32.20 to rise all the way up to No. 2 in school history. Kibet cleared the previous second-place time by nearly six seconds, moving her behind only record holder Allyson Girard's mark of 16:16.61 set back in 2018.
The Islanders will now close out the Bryan Clay Invitational on Saturday, with the same six competitors from day two set to compete in the 1,500m during the final day. The men will start things off in the morning session at 10:30 a.m. CT, while the women will wrap things up in the evening block at 9:00 p.m. and 11:15 p.m.
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