FRISCO, Texas – Sophomore
Elizabeth Khatevi of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team earned another recognition for her outstanding performance during the 2026 indoor season on Wednesday afternoon, as it was announced by the league office that she was named both the Southland Conference Women's Indoor Athlete and Track Athlete of the Year.
Khatevi earned the honors after continuing her reign of dominance as the best women's distance runner in the conference, winning the Most Valuable Performer and Most Outstanding Track Performer awards at the SLC Indoor Championships last week by taking home three gold medals and being the top individual points scorer in the entire field. Two of these came in the mile and the 3000m, where she managed to set new Indoor Championships meet records in both events with times of 4:38.62 and 9:30.27 respectively. The other victory came as a member of the Islanders' distance medley relay team, where she served as the anchor and helped bring the unit from ninth place when she took the baton all the way up to the top spot during the last leg of the race.
In addition to her achievements at the conference championships, Khatevi also set two different Southland Conference event records throughout the course of the season. The first came in the 3000m, when the Kenyan crossed the line in 8:59.74 at the BU Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on December 6 to shatter the old conference record by nearly 24 full seconds. She then earned the top spot in the mile on two separate occasions, first achieving a time of 4:39.95 at the Robert Platt Invitational in Houston on January 31 before then besting that two weeks later at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston on February 14 with a time of 4:31.71.
The accolades add to Khatevi's already extensive list of honors that she has earned since joining the program prior to the 2024-25 school year. In Track & Field alone, Khatevi has now won six total conference championship gold medals, two conference championship Most Valuable Performer awards and now an Indoor Athlete of the Year award, which go along with back-to-back individual Cross Country championships and a 46
th place finish at the 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
"I am beyond proud of Elizabeth!" Islanders head coach
Bryan Jackson said. She had an amazing indoor season and deserves all the accolades she's gotten after setting four conference records – two of them championship records – along the way!"
Along with Khatevi, the Islanders also saw nine other athletes earn spots on the Southland's Indoor All-Conference Teams, which were awarded based on finishes at the Indoor Championships. The full list of honorees can be found below:
First Team
Second Team
Third Team
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