Pittsburg, Kansas - In their very first meet of the indoor season, competing in Pittsburg State's Boo Rogers Invite, the Texas A&M - Kingsville Track and Field teams broke four different school records and a slew of Javelinas made NCAA provisional marks.
The Invite hosted 35 total teams and more than 1,000 athletes, making the Javelinas' many top-10 event finishes, and their multiple wins, all the more impressive. In total, TAMUK T&F athletes hit eight different NCAA provisional marks across the weekend's two days of competition.
"The weekend was great," Head Coach
Ryan Dall said after Saturday's competition wrapped up. "We had two more school records broken today, both my
Maya Espinosa, and our athletes won three events."
On Friday, day one of the Invite, sophomore
Afaf Benhadja broke the school record in the Pentathlon, while senior
Ivanova Yanes took down the school's 5k record. Benhadja placed sixth in the Pentathlon with a score of 3293. Yanes placed fourth, running a 17:16.76. She also competed in the 3000m run, placing seventh with a 10:05.31.
The meet's second day was arguably even more successful, as senior
Maya Espinosa knocked down two school records herself. She ran a 2:14.35 800m, placing fifth, and won the 3000m run with a 9:51.70 - good for the NCAA provisional mark.
"At a huge meet like this, it's great to get event wins," Dall said. "We also had a bunch of NCAA provisional marks and top 10 marks on the national performance lists for men and women."
Kingsville's two other event wins came, first, from
Cody Fountain, who holds the school's mile run record, ran a 1:51.48 800m run, winning the race by under half a second and hitting the event's NCAA provisional mark. While it's final event win was delivered by
Cynai Christopher won the 200m dash with a 24.73, hitting the NCAA provisional mark in that event as well as the 400m dash, in-which she placed second.
Ronald Grueso Mosquera and
David Guzman each competed in the shot put, placing third and fourth respectively. Both hit the NCAA provisional mark. Django Segovia's J4.97m pole vault hit the NCAA provisional mark, as did
Katryna Hernandez's 14.35m shot put.
"We brought a veteran group up here and they all performed well," Dall said. "I am very proud of the results from this weekend."
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