HOUSTON, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team had another strong day at the Southland Conference Outdoor Championships on Friday, earning two more individual medals and seeing three additional competitors qualify for the final day of the meet tomorrow.
As a team, both the men's and women's squads sit in fifth place, with the former tallying 31 points in total and the latter reaching 35. If both were to hold, it would mark a four-spot improvement for the men and a three-spot rise for the women on their respective performances from the Outdoor Conference Championships last season.
"I'm very proud of this team!" said head coach
Bryan Jackson. "Like any track and field meet, it's been a roller coaster, but our ups have been fantastic. We've punched eight spots into the middle-distance finals tomorrow, so there are lots of great scoring opportunities in front of us!"
In almost identical fashion to the opening day of the meet, the Islanders got their afternoon started with a podium finish from sophomore
Emmanuel Ekuma, who after earning bronze in the hammer throw on Friday took home another third-place finish in the men's shot put on Saturday. Ekuma smashed his old personal best in the event, improving almost half a meter by reaching a high of 17.53m in his first throw of the finals and fourth on the day overall. The Katy, Texas native will now have the chance to make it a perfect three for three on the podium on Sunday, aiming to do so yet again in his signature discus throw.
The other medal for an Islander would come near the very end of the day, with this one being earned by freshman
Micah Mizell in the women's 3,000m steeplechase. In the final race of her debut season at the collegiate level, Mizell set the new school record in the event, crossing the line in 10:46.71 to improve her time by more than 17 seconds and take home the bronze in the event. This brought the team's medal count up to seven over the weekend in total, with more chances set to come on the final day.
In between these two podium finishes, A&M-Corpus Christi also had a few other standouts on the track that earned their places in the finals of their events on Saturday. The first of these was freshman
Elizabeth Khatevi, who finished at the top of the pack in the women's 800m with a time of 2:10.34. This was the second straight day that Khatevi earned a berth to the final day, also doing so in the 1,500m on Thursday. On the other side of the same event, freshmen
Philip Jensen e Castro and
Dillon Smith also punched their tickets, doing so with times of 1:52.46 and 1:52.88 respectively. Jensen e Castro earned one of the automatic bids after coming out on top of Heat 2, while Smith edged his way in as the seventh qualifier after coming in second in Heat 4. Like Khatevi, Smith also qualified in the 1,500m the day before, meaning he'll be primed to pull double duty on the final day of the meet.
The Islanders will now try to add to their medal count on the last day of their season on Saturday, returning to the track one last time at 3 p.m.
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