Canyon - The Lone Star Conference Outdoor Championships wrapped up Saturday night, with the Texas A&M-Kingsville track and field men's team taking third place with 117 points, while the women's team took home fourth place with 73.5 points throughout the three day competition.
Across the weekend, TAMUK posted 20 podium finishes (seven from the women, 13 from the men), including three LSC Gold-Medal-winning performances. Among those excellent performances were six new top-25 marks in Division II this year, three of which are top-10 marks. Leading the individual LSC Champions was junior women's thrower
Yosiris Cordoba, who made history in the discus with a throw of 57.63m. That same throw also became the best throw in all of Division II so far this season, and the sixth-best all-time throw in D-II History.
Like Cordoba, freshman men's sprinter
Ausencio Martinez grabbed gold at the first LSC Outdoor Championship of his career, running a 20.86 in the 200m final, the fourth-fastest time in school history. Another Javelina competing in their first Outdoor LSC Chip, junior women's pole vaulter
Kenzie Kurdys, cleared a bar set at 3.63m, crushing the competition to take home gold.
Amazingly, before his 200m performance, Martinez combined forces with
Christopher Gonzalez,
Malachi Barendilla, and
DaTavus Pope to run a 39.83 in the 4x100m relay, earning the silver medal. In addition to being the seventh-fastest time in school history, it is also the 12th-fastest mark in the event posted in all of D2 so far this year.
Gonzalez, who ran the first leg of the relay, posted one of the most impressive all-around weekends in recent memory throughout the meet. Including the silver he earned with the 4x100m crew, he earned four medals on the weekend, the first of which he nabbed on Friday with just four jumps, taking silver with a 7.38m jump. Another freshman,
Jayden McCoy, also podiumed in the event, recording his personal best as well with a 7.37m jump to earn the bronze medal. Gonzalez passed on his last two jumps in the long jumpin order to make it to his heat in the 400m hurdle prelims, where he earned a spot in the finals on Saturday. Once there, he ran a 52.23, taking home silver in the event. He then capped off his weekend not long after, running the anchor leg of the team's 4x400m relay, which ran a 3:10.17, the sixth-fastest time in school history and enough to earn a bronze medal.
Joseph Mouaha,
Darius Bouakel, and
Austin Villanueva joined Gonzalez on the relay, each earning the first LSC Outdoor medal of their careers.
That wasn't Kingsville's only 4x400m relay team to show their elite speed, their female counterparts would light up the books as well.
Jazmine Miller,
Sakara Wade,
Valentina Torres, and
Oneika Brissett finished third in the event, clocking in at 3:37.95, becoming the new second fastest time in school history with the seventh-fastest time run in the nation this year. That wasn't all for Brissett, who ran the relay's anchor leg, however, as she competed in the 400m dash earlier in the day, earning herself another bronze medal with a 53.10. That time is the new eighth-fastest time in the nation this season, and breaks TAMUK's program record by more than half of a second.
Adding to his medal room was Jhonatan Rodriguez-Orsono who ran in the 800m run earning silver with a time of 1:51.35. The last individual track finals event to get a Hog on the podium was in the 1,500m run, where
Roberto Alejandro ran a time of 3:59.07, pulling off an electric last lap to earn himself a silver medal.
On the track wasn't the only place the Javelinas dealt their damage.
Paisley Janssen would grind her way to a silver medal, jumping a new personal best height of 1.71m in the women's high jump. That height was the same bar cleared by the eventual champion, who took gold over Janssen on attempt. It ties her for the 20th-best jump in the nation so far this season. Women's shot put would make its mark as well with
Kaylea Demetrius and
Karina Alvarez making a trip to the podium together. Alvarez, who won the event at the LSC Indoor Championship, would earn the bronze medal with a throw of 13.26m, nearly a half a meter further than fourth place. Her shot put partner, Demetrius, would throw 13.88m, earning her the silver medal. That wasn't all for shot-put however, as
Matthew Cordero had a throw of 16.26m on the men's side, putting him on the podium with a bronze-medal performance.
In the men's pole vault, Senior
Django Segovia and redshirt freshman
Trevor Upton, who each medalled during the LSC Indoor Championships, would podium as well. Segovia would bring home the bronze medal, clearing a height of 4.98m. Bringing home the silver yet again this year, Upton would clear 5.18m.
In the Decathlon
Caden Soliz earned the bronze medal edging out the fourth place finisher by just 12 points. Soliz jumped his personal best in pole vault, clearing a height of 3.65m.
Jason Gordon would come in second earning the silver medal in the decathlon, staying ahead of third place by nearly 1,200 points. Gordon also recorded five new personal bests during his stellar performance of 6681 which marks him at the seventh-highest score in school history and the 25th-best in the nation this season.
Kingsville will now look ahead to the 2026 NCAA National Championships in Emporia, KS in two weeks, and will await the announcement of National Qualifiers, of which TAMUK should have quite a few.
Compiled Javelina Results
