KINGSVILLE, Texas – The road home for the Defending NCAA National Champion Texas A&M-Kingsville track and field program begin this week with a trip to Portales, N.M., for the 2019 Lone Star Conference Outdoor Championships hosted by Eastern New Mexico.
 
Juniors Valentin Charles (Rennes, France) and Johnathon Harper (Lorena, Texas) will headline the decathlon competition for the Blue and Gold as the duo currently rank in the top five in Division II following a thrilling regular season.
 
Charles tops the list as one of three individuals in the country with an NCAA Automatic Qualifying mark in the multi-event as he posted a point total of 7375 back at the David Noble Relays on April 6 to set a new program record by bettering Harper's mark of 7125 from the 12th Annual Cactus Cup.
 
Harper's total at the opening meet of the outdoor season was a new personal best as he finished second at Pepsi Field at Javelina Stadium.
 
Also headlining the men's program will be redshirt senior Richard Cervantes (Mission, Texas) in the shot put and discus. The Sharyland H.S. product currently owns two AQ marks, one each in both event, as he posted both at the David Noble Relays.
 
Cervantes heaved the shot put 18.90m (62-0.25) to finish first by over a half-meter, and slung the disc 56.42m (185-1) to grab second and bring his day of competition to an end.
 
Sophomore Ayman Zahafi (Casablanca, Morocco) currently tops the 800m leaderboard in Division II with a time of 1:48.85 from the J. Fred Duckett Twilight on April 20, while junior William Watson (Belton, Texas) added a provisional time of 14.09 in the 110m hurdles at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational on April 12 to round out the track athletes for TAMUK
 
Freshman Dyshon Vaughn (New Haven, Conn.) joins Cervantes in the field with a provisional mark of 7.53m (24-8.50) in the long jump at the twilight, currently 11th in the nation, while junior Vitaly Zhgun (Moscow, Russia) sits ninth in the javelin with a hurl of 65.12m (213-8) at the same meet.
 
For the Javelina women, senior Racheal Somoye (Houston, Texas) looks to defend her crown in the hammer throw as her toss of 60.24m (197-8) at the relays in San Angelo, Texas, went in as a new LSC and program record in addition to being a new personal best.
 
Her throw currently sits third in the nation as she leads the Blue and Gold women into the championships.
 
Junior Madeleine Maltais (Corpus Christi, Texas) will have the opportunity to move up the javelin descending order list as she is currently 11th with a distance of 46.08m (151-2) from the David Noble Relays. Her throw was good for eighth in Division II at the time before she got bumped down.
Senior LaGae Brigance (Houston, Texas) is the final Javelina with a provisional mark in the outdoor season as her height of 1.71m (5-7.25) at the J. Fred Duckett Twlight slotted her 12th in the country.
 
The three-day is set to begin Thursday, May 2, with the heptathlon and decathlon, and will conclude Saturday, May 4 at Greyhound Stadium.
 
To keep up-to-date with Javelina track & field, following the program on Facebook at /JavelinaSports or on Twitter @JavelinaTandF