BOSTON – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team officially wrapped up its regular season slate for the indoor portion of the schedule over the weekend, doing so with impressive performances from four different distance runners at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, hosted by Boston University.
At the same time that the majority of the team competed at the Howie Ryan Invitational in Houston on Friday, sophomore
Kye Lowth got things started for the group sent to the northeast in grand fashion, putting together one of the best showings of his young career in the men's 3,000m. The Australian finished his race with a time of 8:05.80, breaking the old school record set by national champion and A&M-Corpus Christi Hall of Honor inductee Shadrack Songok nearly 18 years ago all the way back at the 2008 Southland Conference Indoor Championships. In doing so, Lowth also finished in 58
th place at the meet overall, which came in a field of over 230 competitors from all across the country.
The unit then picked things back up on Saturday, starting with another record-setting performance by sophomore
Elizabeth Khatevi in the women's mile. Khatevi crossed the line in the invitational section of the event with a time of 4:31.71, which shattered her previous career-best of 4:39.95 set two weeks ago at the Robert Platt Invitational, a mark that had already sat alone as the all-time record in program history. At the meet, she finished in 14
th place overall, an impressive showing in a race that featured some of the best women's collegiate distance runners in the nation.
Closing out the day after Khatevi were sophomores
Alicia Finnis and
Phylis Kibet, who competed in the 3000m and the 5000m respectively. Finnis hit the track first, clocking a time of 9:39.85 that came a just a little short of her personal best of 9:33.63 that she set at last year's Charlie Thomas Invitational in College Station. Kibet followed this up right after and crossed the line in her event in 16:28.95, which debuted her at No. 2 in program history and just two seconds behind the top mark set by Rabea Schoneborn nearly seven years ago. Like Lowth, Kibet also earned 58
th place overall, with hers coming in a field of over 150 athletes.
"I'm extremely proud of this group in Boston," Islanders head coach
Bryan Jackson said. "All four of them competed with the Islander spirit in all of their individual races. Elizabeth continues to show she is on a level of her own in Islander history."
The Islanders will now return to make their final preparations before the Southland Conference Indoor Championships, which will take place in Birmingham, Alabama on February 25 and 26.
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