HOUSTON – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team officially gets the 2026 season underway over the weekend, returning to action to kick off the indoor portion of its schedule on Saturday at the Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational, hosted by the University of Houston.
The meet will get underway at 10 a.m. CT starting with the field events, which will then be followed by the track events at 1:30 p.m. The Islanders will be competing with 12 other schools, a list that includes host Houston, SEC opponent Texas, and Southland Conference rivals Lamar and UTRGV.
"It's hard to believe it's that time of year again," Islanders head coach
Bryan Jackson. "We have worked all fall for this. I am excited to get another journey started with this team. Undoubtedly, we are entering this year a better team than the year before, and that's saying a lot with the historic year we had last year."
The 2025 campaign was a very successful one for the Islanders, with the youthful team setting 20 different program records in total and earning 23 medals in total between the Southland Conference's Indoor and Outdoor Championships. In addition to this, the women finished in fourth place at both championships, which marked their best-ever finish at the indoor version and matched their best placement at the outdoor version.
In the opening portion of the day on Saturday, A&M-Corpus Christi will showcase its rejuvenated throws program in the second year under the direction of associate head coach/throws coach
Andrew Glass, a group that set nine school records during Glass's first season on the Island in 2025 between the indoor and outdoor portions of the schedule. The unit is once again led by senior
Cyan Green, who returns to competition in Houston after setting two of these records herself last year and winning the gold medal in the weight throw at the Southland Conference Indoor Championships. In addition to Green, the group will also see a number of different newcomers looking to make their mark, including freshman
Samson Black for the men and junior
Natalia Rankin-Chitar for the women, who both cracked the program's all-time indoor top five in the shot put in their first time wearing the uniform at last month's preseason McFerrin Invitational.
On the track, the Islanders will see some familiar faces from the cross country program get back into action after they finished in second place in the conference on both the men's and women's sides. Included in this is sophomore
Alicia Finnis, who will compete in the mile run after just being named the Southland Conference's Women's Cross Country Student-Athlete of the Year, and senior
Ewan Wheelwright, who will also race the mile coming off an All-SLC Second Team nod at November's Cross Country Championships. Near the end of the day, sophomore
Philip Jensen e Castro hits the course in the 1,000m, which marks his first event in track season since he won the gold medal in the 800m at last year's SLC Outdoor Championships.
"For the opener, we are competing about half our team," Jackson said. "We are looking for the group that is out there to start building great competitive habits and have the type of opener we can build upon."
Saturday's meet is the first of three during the indoor regular season, all of which will take place in Houston. The Southland Conference Indoor Championships will follow not long after on February 26-27 in Birmingham, Alabama, and should anyone qualify, the NCAA Indoor Championships will happen on March 13-14 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Results for the Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational will be available to follow along live, and the meet can also be watched live on the Houston Athletics YouTube channel.
Indoor Meet 1 // A&M-Corpus Christi at Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational
Date: Saturday, January 10
Time: 10:00 a.m. CT
Location: Yeoman Fieldhouse // Houston, TX
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Live Results
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