Harris Sets Indoor Track & Field Program Record

The 2025 indoor track & field season started with a bang as junior Nayla Harris set a new program record in the women’s 60-meter dash to headline a strong opening meet for The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Friday at the LSU Purple Tiger at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse.

Harris tied the then-program best time of 7.44 in the 60 prelims to punch her ticket to finals. There, she lowered her personal best time to 7.35 to claim the new No. 1 spot in the UTRGV record books and take third in the event.

Harris was one of four individuals to make entries into the indoor program record books Friday, along with sophomore Keamonie Archie, junior Aaron Cooper, and junior Corin Burns. Archie recorded the No. 2 men’s long jump in program history as he jumped a personal-best 7.45 meters to take third in the event. Cooper notched the fourth-best jump in UTRGV history and a new personal best with his mark of 14.91 meters in a second-place finish. Burns also made two entries with his men’s 60-meter dash prelim and finals races. He ran 6.78 in prelims, tying the No. 5 time in history, and ran 6.79 in finals to take second and the No. 7 spot in the record books.

The men’s 4×400-meter relay team of junior Sam Johnson II, junior Cerrone Thompson, junior Jamari Harts, and freshman Richard Young capped the big day with one final record book entry. The quartet took second at the meet in 3:17.49, the No. 8 time in program history.

Senior Zoë Adams won the women’s 200-meter dash in 25.92, followed by junior Aja Johnson in fifth. Young was second in the men’s 200-meter dash, adding to his solid collegiate debut.

UTRGV racked up seven personal bests on Friday. Freshmen Trezur Connley and Krystan Bright looked sharp in their collegiate debuts as they both advanced to the finals of the women’s 60-meter hurdles. Connley finished seventh and Bright was eighth, while Connley ran a personal best 8.79 in the finals, improving her prelim time by .07. In the men’s 60-meter hurdles prelims, sophomore James Voss was ninth and junior Jaylen Critton took 12^th and matched his personal record of 8.36. Among the distance crew, senior Brownsville Porter alum Estrella Medellin and junior Abraham Morales ran personal bests in the women’s mile and men’s 3,000-meter run, respectively. Morales finished fifth in his event.

Senior Efe Latham had a strong UTRGV debut as she finished sixth in the women’s weight throw with a mark of 16.03 meters and took seventh in shot put with a mark of 12.33 meters. Junior Hannah Hilding was fifth in women’s shot put after throwing 13.23 meters. The Vaqueros jumps squad added to the field events success as graduate student Ja’Carrius Demmerrittee was third in the men’s triple jump, junior Jedidiah Udunna took fifth in men’s long jump, and graduate student Gabrielle Thomas finished fifth in women’s triple jump.

The mid-distance duo of junior Lilliana Guerrero and sophomore Kailey Salazar took second and third, respectively, in the women’s 800-meter run. Thompson and Harts picked up fifth-place finishes in the men’s 600-meter and 60-meter races, respectively. Junior Brownsville Hanna alum Aliyah Castillo added a fifth-place finish in the women’s 400-meter dash.

Castillo, freshmen Jizzale Davis and Azayla Smith, and senior Trinity Kirk combined to take third in the women’s 4×400-meter relay in 3:55.62.

UTRGV’s next meet will be Texas Tech’s Stan Scott Invite & Multi running Jan. 30 through Feb. 1 in Lubbock.