HOUSTON – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team had arguably its best performance to date at the Howie Ryan Invitational in Houston on Friday, putting together an excellent all-around effort and showcasing depth in many different parts of the roster.
The track was where the Islanders really shined on Friday, finishing near the top of the pack in numerous different races all throughout the day. Perhaps the best individual effort came from sophomore
Dillon Smith, who took home the individual victory in the 800m with a time of 1:51.95 that very nearly broke his own school record of 1:51.21 that he set at the Jarvis Scott Invitational nearly a year ago to the day. In the same race, sophomore
Philip Jensen e Castro placed right behind Smith in second, crossing the line in 1:52.15 to jump up one spot to No. 3 in the event in program history.
"Even though the time wasn't a PR, Dillon won the 800m in impressive fashion," Islanders head coach
Bryan Jackson said. "He was in less than ideal position for most of the race, but he found a way to get it done. I can't be more proud of how he has been racing this year."
This wasn't the only strong showing on the men's side of the track, though, starting with a fifth-place finish from junior
Luke Bartnick in the 400m with a time of 49.07s that lifted him into the school's record books for the first time in his career. Later on in the day, sophomore
Diego Canto also made his own top 10 in the 3000m, reaching ninth all-time after crossing the line in 8:25.88. The group even made history in a relay for the first time in 2026, with the quartet of Bartnick, Smith, sophomore
Kenya Ford and freshman
Colin Benton clocking in with a time of 3:17.16 in the 4x400m to debut at seventh on that event's leaderboard.
Not to be outdone, the women also had a nice day themselves, led most notably by a 4:57.10 mile time from sophomore
Neele Heyne, which earned her third place at the meet and vaulted her up to No. 5 in program history in the event. Also earning herself a podium finish was junior
Faith Ramos, who clocked in at 10:05.31 in the 3000m to finish second overall and just narrowly miss overtaking the 10
th spot on the Islanders' all-time leaderboard.
On the other side of the docket, the Islanders got a few standout performances during the field portion of the day, the best of which came in the form of a big breakthrough from sophomore
Armando Rivera in the men's triple jump. After inching closer and closer to the school record in the event at the first two meets of the season, Rivera finally managed to take it down on Friday, doing so with an impressive leap of 15.04m that cleared the old best of 14.94m set by R'Darius Edwards at the Texas Tech Invitational on January 30, 2020. Beyond this, both junior
Emmanuel Ekuma and senior
Cyan Green took home podium finishes in the men's shot put and the women's weight throw respectively, and junior
Natalia Rankin-Chitar managed to improve upon her own placing in the weight throw by moving up to No. 6 all time with a mark of 14.97m.
"This team is an extremely consistent group of athletes," Jackson said. "Both the men and women across the entire team just showed such competitive consistency today in Houston. As a team, we are ready for a huge breakout performance, and I really believe it's coming at the conference meet.
"That's not to say we didn't have some breakthrough performances today," Jackson continued. "Neele and Faith in the distance group had big PRs in their events, Armando in the triple jump broke through the 15m barrier, and Luke and Kenya in the sprints group had big PRs in the 400m."
The Islanders will now wrap up the indoor regular season on Saturday, finishing out their run at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston as their final tune up before the Southland Conference Indoor Championships.
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