FRISCO, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field picked up a pair of significant academic honors on the men's side on Friday afternoon, as it was announced by the league office that
Samson Black and
Kye Lowth were named the Southland Conference Outdoor and Indoor Student-Athletes of the Year for the 2026 season.
In addition, eight other Islanders were named to the conference's All-Academic Team, with
Jordan Bowling,
Diego Canto and
Novestus Kipkemei Meli joining Black and Lowth and
Breyunna Dowell,
Natalia Rankin-Chitar,
Neele Heyne,
Embla Hreimsdottir and
Alicia Finnis earning the honor on the women's side.
Black, from Sabine, Texas, finished his first year of college with a perfect 4.00 GPA while working toward his Finance degree. The award adds another to his count for his standout debut campaign, as he was also named Southland Conference Outdoor Co-Freshman of the Year after scoring 14 total points at the SLC Outdoor Championships by winning the silver medal in the discus and the bronze medal in the hammer throw. Throughout the course of the year, Black set the new school record in the hammer throw at a mark of 58.84m while also rising to second in the weight throw, third in the discus, and fourth in both the indoor and outdoor shot put.
Lowth, a native of Brisbane, Australia, finished the year with a 3.93 cumulative GPA while working toward his Communications Studies degree, including a perfect 4.00 GPA during the spring semester. On the track, he won the gold medal in the 5000m at the SLC Indoor Championships, doing so with a time of 14:17.62 that ranks fourth all-time in program history. He also broke two different school records in the indoor 3000m and the outdoor 1500m that had stood for 18 and 20 years respectively while also rising to fourth all-time in the indoor 5000m and sixth in the outdoor 5000m.
Bowling, out of Needville, Texas, finished the year with a 3.29 cumulative GPA while working toward his kinesiology degree. He won the bronze medal in the javelin at the SLC Outdoor Championships with a throw of 61.94m and went on to qualify for the NCAA West First Round in the event, where he finished 27
th overall after reaching 62.76m. He also set a personal best of 64.62m at the UTSA Invitational on March 20, helping him rise to fourth all-time in school history.
Canto, from Corpus Christi, finished the year with a 3.39 cumulative GPA while working toward a degree in Finance, including a 3.60 GPA during the spring semester. He earned points for the Islanders at both the SLC Indoor and Outdoor Championships, scoring five at the former with a fourth-place finish in the 5000m and three at the latter by finishing fifth in the 10000m. He also rose to sixth in program history in the outdoor 10000m with a time of 30:17.74 at the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 16.
Kipkemei Meli, out of Kenya, posted a perfect 4.00 GPA in his first year on campus while working toward a Mechanical Engineering Technology degree. He scored four points for the Islanders at the SLC Indoor Championships with a fifth-place finish in the 5000m, crossing the line with a time of 14:31.72 that debuted him at seventh in program history in the event. He also made his way up to fifth all-time in the outdoor 10000m, ninth in the indoor 3000m, and 10
th in the 3000m steeplechase.
Dowell, a native of Fairfield, Texas, finished the year with a 3.45 cumulative GPA while working toward her Psychology degree, including a 3.75 GPA during the spring semester. She won the gold medal in the hammer throw at the SLC Outdoor Championships, doing so while breaking her own school record with a best mark of 59.11m. She would go on to qualify for the NCAA West First Round for the second year in a row, finishing 38
th overall with a mark of 55.68m. In addition, she also made her way to 10
th in program history in the outdoor shot put at the SMU Invitational on May 2.
Rankin-Chitar, from Auckland, New Zealand, finished the year with a 3.38 cumulative GPA while working toward her degree in Kinesiology. She won gold in the shot put at the SLC Outdoor Championships while setting a new program record at a mark of 16.14m, becoming the first Islander woman to ever clear the 16-meter mark. This throw qualified her for the NCAA West First Round, where she would go on to finish 22
nd overall with a best throw of 15.78m. During indoor season, she took home the silver medal at the SLC Championships with a best throw of 15.22m while also setting another school record at the Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational on January 10, doing so after reaching 15.90m.
Heyne, from Schkeidotz, Germany, finished the year with a 3.71 cumulative GPA while working toward her Psychology degree. She won a pair of gold medals at championship meets throughout the year, first doing so as the first leg of the Islanders' distance medley relay team at the SLC Indoor Championships before then doing so on her own in the 3000m steeplechase at the SLC Outdoor Championships with a time of 10:35.03. She also set the new school record in the steeplechase at the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 16 after crossing the line in 10:29.52.
Hreimsdottir, from Norolingaholt, Iceland, finished the year with a 3.63 cumulative GPA while working toward her Psychology degree, including a 3.80 GPA during the spring semester. Like Heyne, she was also part of the Islanders' gold-medal winning DMR team at the SLC Indoor Championships, serving as the third leg and helping them finish with a time of 11:41.50. She also scored a point individually at the Outdoor Championships, qualifying for the finals of the 1500m and finishing eighth with a time of 4:32.82. In that same event, she also rose to fifth in school history at the SMU Invitational on May 2 with a time of 4:29.57.
Finnis, from Salisbury, England, makes her way onto the All-Academic Team for the second straight year after finishing with a 3.93 cumulative GPA in her Civil Engineering degree and a perfect 4.00 GPA during the spring semester. She scored 12 total team points at the SLC Outdoor Championships, winning a silver medal in the 10000m with a time of 35:48.17 that ranks third all-time in program history and adding four more with a fifth-place finish in the 5000m. She also scored eight points at the Indoor Championships, doing so with two more fifths in both the 3000m and the 5000m.
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