Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
BY THE STAFF OF THE NEWS
It takes a lot to be great.
There’s the natural talent, the hard work, usually some intangibles. Sometimes there’s no specific formula.
Whatever it is, Eastern New Mexico University has decided that basketball star Treyanna Clay and running phenom Ivar Moinat have it. The ENMU athletic department recently announced Moinat and Clay as the 2018-19 Greatest Greyhounds.
Moinat joins a long list of storied track and field athletes that have received the award, which dates back to 1940, including former Olympians Mike Boit and Rex Maddaford. Clay becomes the first member of the women’s basketball team to claim the award since Heather Brown was named the Female Greatest Greyhound for 2006-07.
As voted upon by members of the athletic department staff, the Greatest Greyhound Award is presented each year to one male and one female athlete that represent the highest standards of ENMU Athletics and encompasses all that embodies a successful student-athlete.
Clay continued to elevate her standard of play throughout the season and was a driving force in leading the Greyhounds to their second NCAA Division II national tournament selection in the last three seasons. The Tucson, Ariz. native led the Hounds with a 16 points-per-game average and recorded double-digit scoring in all but two games last season — both non-conference.
Her efforts on the court earned Clay D2CCA South Central Region Second-Team honors as well as a First-Team All-Lone Star Conference nod at season’s end. She was named the league’s Newcomer of the Year after leading the Hounds to a 19-9 regular-season record and the eighth seed in the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament.
She totaled 354 points against conference opposition, second most in the LSC, and tallied her 1,000th career point on Feb. 23 at Tarleton State. Clay scored the second-highest total of points for the Greyhounds since the 2000-01 season with 481 on the year and recorded the program’s second-most free throws in a single season with 170.
Moinat also etched his name into the Greyhound record books during a year in which he claimed USTFCCCA First-Team All-American honors for the indoor track and field season and USTFCCCA Second-Team All-American honors for the outdoor season. The Amsterdam, Netherlands native qualified for the NCAA Division II national meet in the 800-meter race for both the indoor and outdoor seasons, finishing seventh at the indoor national meet and 12th at the outdoor national meet.
He finished second in the Lone Star Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Greyhound Stadium with a time of 1:52.07, earning Second-Team All-Lone Star Conference honors, and ran the second fastest 800-meter time in school history at the West Texas A&M Classic and Multis with a time of 1:51.03 on Apr. 7.
Moinat’s outstanding performance on the track throughout this past season earned him a spot in the seeded 800-meter run at the prestigious Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa on Apr. 27. He turned in a time of 1:52.25 after finishing the final 400 meters in the third-fastest time of the race, climbing four spots to produce a better finish than nine runners from NCAA Division I programs.
During the indoor season, Moinat earned All-LSC Third-Team accolades while also breaking three ENMU program records, which included a 1:51.00 in the 800-meter at the Texas Tech Open, a 48.74 in the 400-meter at the Red Raider Invitational, and was part of the 4x400-meter relay team that set a school record with a 3:15.98 at the LSC Indoor Championships.
Clay and Moinat will be honored at the annual Hall of honors Banquet on Oct. 11 inside the Campus Union Building. Ceremonies begin at 6 p.m.
