SAN ANTONIO – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track & field team capped off the UTSA Invitational in the second day of the meet on Saturday, starring in the throws group once again while also putting together some nice individual efforts in the other portions of the competition as well.
"It was a great opening weekend of outdoor season," Islanders head coach
Bryan Jackson said. "All areas had a strong showing. I'm really pleased to see us continuing the momentum from indoor season. The next two weeks of training will be key leading into April."
Following a standout day on Friday, the Islanders' throwers picked up right where they left off for day two, starting first in the women's discus. The leader in the pack was senior
Cyan Green, who finished with a best mark of 49.64m to finish fifth overall out of 21. After her, junior
Natalia Rankin-Chitar finished seventh overall with a throw of 46.11m that moved her into fourth in program history in the event, and sophomore
Tania Amos posted a mark of 40.34m to occupy the eighth spot all-time.
Immediately after this was the men's side of the same event, where A&M-Corpus Christi got a similarly impressive performance. Freshman
Samson Black was the best finisher on the team, following up a nice day on Friday where he reached the top 10 in two different events with another such showing, climbing all the way up to third all-time with a throw of 53.29m that was good for fifth in the field out of 38. Junior
Emmanuel Ekuma was right behind in seventh overall with a mark of 52.93m that nearly broke his own personal best from the same meet last year, and sophomore
Riley Wampler reached 45.45m to finish 13
th. Finally, freshman
Ronnie Ramirez Jr. also made his way in the school record books, debuting at No. 9 all time with a throw of 43.54m.
At the same time this was going down, the Islanders also saw a personal-best in the jumps group, with junior
Jayda Hough doing the honors in the women's high jump. After succeeding easily in her first three heights, Hough stepped up with the bar at 1.70m and cleared it in her final attempt, breaking her old personal best of 1.67m set at last year's Southland Conference Outdoor Championships. This was good enough to tie for fourth place in the field, and it helped her break a tie for fourth overall in the school record books and give her sole possession of that spot.
Despite sending a smaller contingent of runners than usual, A&M-Corpus Christi still saw sophomore
Kenya Ford represent the sprinters well in the 200m. Ford finished in the top half of an impressive field in the event, placing third in his heat and 14
th out of 40 overall after crossing the line with a time of 21.60 seconds that earned him the 10
th spot all-time in program history. In the same event, freshman
Colin Benton finished almost exactly the same as Ford as well, clocking in just one millisecond behind to earn 16
th overall and narrowly miss out on his own outdoor top 10 debut.
The Islanders will now take the coming week off before then getting back into action to begin next month, splitting between the Texas Relays in Austin on April 1-4 and the Bobcat Invitational in San Marcos on April 2-4.
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