Five Greyhounds get national invites

PORTALES — For most of Eastern New Mexico University, this is the slow time. The students that didn’t leave sometime during finals week likely left after graduation ceremonies.

But there’s one place where it’s still plenty fast for the green and silver, at least for the five Greyhounds whose seasons are not quite over.

A quintet of Greyhounds are getting ready for the Division II national championships, scheduled for Thursday through Saturday at Texas A&M-Kingsville.

Heading east this week are sophomore Ivar Moinat in the 800 and the women’s 400 relay team of junior Danee Bustos and sophomores Lateria Slaughter, Kandice Miles and Maijah Mathis.

That same relay team went to last year’s national meet in Charlotte and placed eighth. Miles and Mathis will also compete individually, with each runner getting nods for the 100 and 200 events.

Greyhound coach Jeff Kavalunas said there weren’t any major surprises with who got selected from the roster, but acknowledged Mathis was probably on the bubble in the 200.

“We’ve been on campus,” Kavalunas said of the Greyhounds who figured they’d get a national invite. “We’re going to start heading down Monday morning. We’ve got no classes going on, so we have plenty of time.”

Among their qualifications:

• All four members of the relay team received U.S. Track and Field and Cross County Coaches Association All-South Central Regional nods, and holds the school record of 45.56. With a conversion to 45.68 for altitude, it’s the sixth-fastest time in Division II.

• Miles is 11th in the 200, with a school-record 23.87 at the Lone Star Conference championship earlier this month at Greyhound Stadium. The converted time is 23.94. She’s No. 22 in the 100, with her 17.73 run (11.76 converted) at the West Texas A&M Invitational.

• Mathis holds the school record in the 100 (11.71, 19th fastest in Division II) and is second in school history in the 200 (24.07, 20th in Division II).

• Moinat, an All-American after the indoor championships for his seventh-place finish, is No. 17 in Division II at 1:50.66 (converted down from a 1:51.03). He finished second in the 800 at the LSC championship.

While this is technically the first outdoor championship for Moinat, all five of the athletes have been at a national championship already. Kavalunas thinks that will help.

“They’ll be much more relaxed,” Kavalunas said. “The first time through, you’re very nervous and that can fatigue you a little bit. Danee’s been through a couple of national championships, and for the other girls it’s their second.”

In the most optimistic scenario — the relay team winning, plus Miles and Mathis finishing 1-2 in both the 100 and 200 for 46 team points— the Greyhound women could crack the top five.

A double-digit team score, however, could put the Greyhound women in the top 20. Lincoln won last year’s meet with 60 points, but 24 teams finished between 10 and 17 points. That’s certainly possible, and Kavalunas noted the men’s indoor team finished 13th in the 2018 nationals with only senior Kenneth Lloyd and Marcus Parker, who has since transferred to Division-I Clemson.

“We will need to be on with the handoffs,” Kavalunas said of the relay. “The nice thing is Danee Bustos, who missed quite a bit of the early season with injuries, is getting a little stronger and faster and getting back more each day. Maijah is running very well. She’s even stronger than last year. I think we can run fast. It’s still going to be a challenge to qualify for the finals.”

There’s no particular benefit to having the meet at a fellow LSC school other than a shorter trip, as this crop of Greyhounds have never attended a meet at Kingsville. Kavalunas said it might take some adjustment as the course is “a little tighter on the turns” than most facilities, and there’s no margin for error as a national championship will be tightly officiated.

Preliminaries are Thursday for the relay team and the women’s 100, and Friday for the 200 and the men’s 800.