CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team will see a select group of athletes continue the 2026 campaign deeper into the postseason, as it was revealed by the NCAA on Thursday that six Islanders qualified for the West Region First Round, which will be held in Fayetteville, Arkansas on the campus of the University of Arkansas from May 27-30.
The Islanders will send four women and two men into competition next week, with those being
Elizabeth Khatevi and
Phylis Kibet in the women's 1500m,
Natalia Rankin-Chitar in the women's shot put,
Breyunna Dowell in the women's hammer throw, and
Chase Hight and
Jordan Bowling in the men's javelin. This marks a step up from the 2025 season, when the team had five athletes compete at the First Round in College Station.
Of the group listed above, Khatevi is the highest seeded of the bunch, ranking 12
th in the region in the 1500m entering the meet with a best time of 4:10.13. The SLC Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Athlete of the Year reached this time at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California on April 18, doing so while setting both the A&M-Corpus Christi and Southland Conference all-time records in the process. Khatevi is looking to qualify for an NCAA Championship for the second time this school year, as she previously did so during cross country season and placed 46
th overall, the best finish for a woman in program history.
Kibet will join Khatevi in the same event, qualifying at 45
th after posting a best time of 4:19.12 at the SMU Invitational on May 2 that ranks just behind her teammate in second place all-time in program history. She narrowly missed the podium in the event at the SLC Outdoor Championships last week, finishing fourth overall with a time of 4:23.99.
Rankin-Chitar heads into regionals fresh off a gold medal in the shot put at the SLC Championships, taking home the top prize after reaching a top throw of 16.14m in Nacogdoches. This made the New Zealand native the first Islander to ever clear the 16-meter mark, and it helped her move all the way up to 25
th in the West region to secure her qualifying spot.
Dowell is the lone 2026 qualifier for the Islanders to previously compete at the NCAA First Round, as she also qualified in the hammer throw last year and finished 34
th overall after reaching a mark of 56.08m. She is coming off a gold medal in the event at the SLC Championships after setting a new personal best of 59.11m, which nabbed her the No. 41 spot in next week's field.
For the second year in a row, A&M-Corpus Christi sends two different javelin throwers on the men's side, starting with Hight, who won the gold medal at the Outdoor Championships with a personal-best toss of 65.73m that helped him qualify in 31
st in his first year with the program. Right behind him,
Jordan Bowling – fresh off a bronze at the same meet – took the No. 39 spot in the First Round, which he achieved with his mark of 64.62m that he reached at the UTSA Invitational on March 20.
The week in Fayetteville will start on the opening day of the meet on Wednesday, with Hight and Bowling kicking things off at 2 p.m. All the women will then get into action on Thursday, beginning with Dowell at 9:30 a.m. and continuing in the evening with Khatevi and Kibet at 6:30 p.m. and Rankin-Chitar at 7 p.m. Should Khatevi or Kibet advance to the quarterfinals of the 1500m, they would return on the final day of competition on Saturday at 5:15 p.m.
The top 12 finishers in each event at the First Round will advance on to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which are scheduled to be held on June 10-13 in Eugene, Oregon.
Click here to see the full list of qualifiers for the
men and the
women.
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