BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team concluded the 2026 Southland Conference Indoor Championships on Thursday, winning three more gold medals on the final day of competition and securing fifth place finishes on both the men's and women's side of the standings with 60 and 78 team points respectively.
The men ended up greatly improving on their placement from the same meet from a year ago, where they scored 38 points and ended up in a tie for eighth. As for the women, they just narrowly missed matching the 83 points that they scored last year, which helped them take home fourth place for the best finish in school history.
"Both teams competed with absolute consistency this weekend," Islanders head coach
Bryan Jackson said. "I couldn't be more proud of the competitive toughness we showed. The women were so close to duplicating their program-best finish from last year, and the men well outperformed their finish from last year. We are by far a better outdoor team, so I have no doubt we will be competing for a top three team finish outdoors!"
As she has done so many times throughout her stint with the program already, sophomore
Elizabeth Khatevi ended up stealing the show on Thursday, winning two more gold medals to run her count up to three between the two days this week. The first of these came in the women's mile, when the Kenyan managed to pull away from UTRGV's N Vanee Anchike and Stephen F. Austin's Evaline Chepkoech and finish with a time of 4:38.62 that set the new SLC Indoor Championships meet record in the event. Just a few hours later, Khatevi broke another meet record in even more dominant fashion, securing another win in the 3000m with a time of 9:30.27 that finished 12 whole seconds ahead of teammate
Phylis Kibet, who managed to secure the silver medal in the same race.
These two triumphs along with her win as a member of the distance medley relay team on Wednesday made Khatevi the top point scorer at the meet, which earned her the nod as the Most Valuable Performer for all women competitors. This marks the second straight conference championship meet in which she has taken home this honor, as she also did so at the 2025 Outdoor Championships after winning three gold medals there as well.
The Islanders got one more individual win on Thursday to round out their gold medal total for the week at six, with the other going to junior
Emmanuel Ekuma in the men's shot put. After earning his way into the next round on his first throw of the day, Ekuma unleashed the best throw of his career in his first attempt of the finals, reaching a distance of 18.27m to shatter his own previous school record by more than a full meter. This helped catapult him into the top spot among the field, which he would easily hold on to after no one else would even come within two feet of his mark. The victory helped Ekuma finally climb to the top of the mountain in the Southland, as it gave him his first-ever gold with the program after walking away with a silver and three bronzes during his previous runs at the conference championships.
Including Kibet's previously mentioned silver, A&M-Corpus Christi added three additional medals on Thursday to finish with 10 in total across the three podium spots. The other second place finish on the day belonged to junior
Natalia Rankin-Chitar, who herself earned silver in the women's shot put after reaching a mark of 15.22m that finished just .01 meters away from tying McNeese's Jaslyn Russell for the top spot. On the track,
Dillon Smith took home his first medal of the weekend in the form of a bronze, which came in the men's 800m after a photo finish saw him cross the line with a time of 1:51.64 that was just a half second behind winner Keyshawn Garcia of SFA.
Beyond those who medaled, the Islanders also had a few other standout performances, with the most notable coming from sophomore
Armando Rivera, who broke his own school record in the triple jump with a distance of 15.06m to come in fourth place overall. Also earning fourth was senior
Cyan Green in the shot put, who reached 14.40m to just narrowly miss out on her second medal of the week after earning gold in the weight throw on Wednesday.
The Islanders will now enjoy some time off before picking things back up for the outdoor portion of the 2026 schedule, starting that slate off in San Antonio at the UTSA Invitational on March 20 and 21.
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