AZUSA, Calif. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team showed out on the second day of the Bryan Clay Invitational, hosted by Azusa Pacific University, on Friday, coming back to action by knocking down two different school records and earning its first two medals of the prestigious meet.
Both school records that the Islanders broke on the day came in the same event, as they managed to do so on both sides of the 800m run. The first on the day came from the woman, with
Elizabeth Khatevi doing the honors after finishing her race with a time of 2:03.41. This broke the old high mark of 2:07.53 by more than four seconds, which she herself held after posting that time nearly a year ago to the date at the 2025 Bryan Clay Invitational. Her time was also the ninth-best overall in the event, placing her near the top of a field that consisted of nearly 140 competitors.
As for the men, A&M-Corpus Christi actually had two different athletes surpass the old record in the 800m in
Dillon Smith and
Philip Jensen e Castro, who finished with nearly identical times of 1:49.18 and 1:49.92 respectively to move ahead of Jensen e Castro's bar of 1:50.41 set in Azusa last year. These marks moved both of them to the top of the Southland leaderboard in addition to the school's record books, with Smith now ranking second in the conference and Jensen e Castro in fourth in the event thus far in 2026.
Even beyond the school records, the Islanders still managed to get a couple other nice showings in the many distance events on the day, with the rest of the races being highlighted by a 14:39.30 from
Ewan Wheelwright in the men's 5000m that marked a new personal best and got him up to 10
th all-time in program history in the event. In the same event,
Kye Lowth also set a new personal record with a time of 14:27.36, helping to improve his own standings on the school's leaderboards. On the women's end,
Phylis Kibet crossed the line in her own 5000m race in 16:32.72, a time that was just .52 seconds off her own high mark and earned her 11
th place overall in the Open A section out of more than 120 entrants.
While these races were going on, A&M-Corpus Christi also competed in the field, getting some standout showings from the throws group amid tough competition. The highlight of this unit was undoubtedly
Breyunna Dowell, who continued her excellent comeback from injury by taking home the gold medal in the women's hammer throw, earning first place in a field of 51 with a best toss of 58.01m. The junior ended up dominating the field, coming in more than two meters ahead of the second-place finisher, and she very nearly broke her own school record of 58.35m set at the 44 Farms Team Invitational on April 12 of last year. In the same event, teammate
Cyan Green came in ninth place with a mark of 52.46m, giving the team two top 10 finishes at the same time.
On the other side,
Samson Black also managed to reach the podium in the men's hammer, securing the bronze medal in a field that consisted of 34 other competitors. The freshman did this by reaching a mark of 56.14m, setting a new personal record in the process by nearly three full meters and continuing his upward trend in the event that started at the season-opening UTSA Invitational last month.
The Islanders will now wrap up the Bryan Clay Invitational on the final day of the meet on Saturday, taking the blocks first at 10:20 a.m. CT and continuing with competition all throughout the day.
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