Houston - At their final regular season meet of the indoor schedule, the Howie Ryan Invite, the Texas A&M - Kingsville men's and women's track and field teams placed top three in five different events, including a school-record triple jump from senior Jazmin Ray and the fourth-best pole vault in the nation this year from senior Thomas Nieto.

Ray's 12.39m jump was nearly a foot longer than the previous record, which was also jumped by Ray last season. She is the only indoor 12-meter jumper in program history. As if that wasn't enough, the jump also tops the Lone Star Conference and is the seventh-best jump in the nation this season in D2.

Nieto cleared 17'3.5'' (5.27m), the new fourth-best mark in the nation this season, and a season-best by 4.25 inches. He came second in the event on Friday.

With a number of new additions on both sides, the crew that TAMUK will be bringing to Albuquerque next weekend for the LSC Indoor Championships is staggeringly-large. The women have hit 41 different Conference-qualifying marks (top-20 performance in an event this season) and the men have hit 31. Three total Javelina relays have qualified for the conference meet, the men's 4x400m and distance medley relay and the women's 4x400m relay.

"Several of our athletes punched their ticket to the conference meet," Assistant Coach Zachary Hall said - he said before the meet that that was a goal for the team this weekend.

Senior Katryna Hernandez, who already holds the 11th-best shot put throw in the nation this season, added a top score in the women's weight throw as well. She placed second in the event with a 55'0.25'' (16.77m) throw, the 50th-best in the country. She also placed fourth in the women's shot put on Friday with a 45'7.75'' (13.91m). 

Sophomore Jhonatan Rodriguez-Osorno ran a 1:53.05 in the men's 800m, just beating out his Javelina teammate, junior Cody Fountain, to win the event. It was the 62nd-best time in D2 this season. Fountain, who owns the 10th-fastest time in the event this year, took second with a 1:53.32.

Freshman Sakara Wade's 57.00 in the women's 400m is the 77th-best time in the nation this year and got her fourth in the event on Friday.

The Javelinas now look forward toward the postseason - with LSC's less than a week away and the NCAA National Championships three weeks after.
"We are excited with where the team is at as we look forward to the conference championship," Hall said.