Kingsville - The 2025 Indoor season could not have started a whole lot better for the Texas A&M - Kingsville track and field teams as Javelinas won four events, climbed the national rankings, and set a new school record across the day's competitions in Houston at the Leonard Hilton Memorial Invite.

Despite being the only D2 team competing in the Invite, hosted by the University of Houston, four different Javelinas won their events, and 10 finished in the top three of an event. Additionally, nine different Javelinas posted a top-30 time or score in their event across all of D2 so far this year.

"It was a good first meet," Assistant Coach Zachary Hall said. "We had some event wins, some top five finishes, some people moved up in the national rankings. It was good to shake the rust off."

Amazingly, Maya Espinosa or junior Ivanova Yanes each topped the previous school record in the women's mile, but neither won the race. They slotted in at second and third respectively while each jumping into the top 20 in the nation. Yanes' 5:04.65 is the 18th.-fastest time in the nation, and broke her own school record, which she set last year. Her teammate, Espinosa, however, ran a 5:01.37, the 10th-best time in the nation, and now holds TAMUK's all-time program record in the mile.

While three of the event winners came on the track for TAMUK, one of them, junior Django Segovia, had an excellent day in the field. He posted the day's best pole vault performance at 4.75m. Though he didn't move up in the national rankings, his 4.97m from the Crimson and Gold Invitational in December has him at eighth in the nation.

Two of the other three event wins came on the men's side as well, with senior Sterling Riles running a 48.29 second 400m. Just a fraction of a second behind him was fellow Javelina, junior Taylor Chaney, who took third in the same race. Both of them leapt near the top of the national rankings with their performances, now sitting at 13th and 29th respectively. 

Sophomore Keyshawn Garcia made a leap in the rankings of his own. With his win of the 800m, he slid into 18th in the nation, running a 1:54.04. The lone event win of the women's side came from senior Cynai Christopher, who is now high in the national rankings in two different events. She won the 400m race today, and her 55.03 from December keeps her in fourth in the nation. Her work in the 4x400m relay, however, was what had her making a big jump. Christopher was joined by Espinosa, Oneika Brissett, and Sophie Mossman, who combined to produce the 14th best time in the event in the nation in D2.

Senior Katryna Hernandez 14.76m mark in the shot put has her grabbing the highest newly-achieved national rankings mark on the team, slotted in at No.8. Senior Jazmin Ray's triple jump of 11.61m is the 18th-best mark in the nation. Sophomore Afaf Benhadja jumped 1.65m in the women's high jump, good for 28th in the country. 

Kingsville will head back to the Yeoman Fieldhouse in Houston in two weeks when they compete in the first Fastrak Collegiate Invitational of the season on January 25th.