ENMU roundup: Women jump to No. 7 in region

PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico University’s women moved up one notch to seventh in this week’s NCAA Division II South Central Region rankings.

ENMU (15-5, 9-5 Lone Star Conference) stretched its winning streak to four games with dominating wins at Greyhound Arena over Texas-Permian Basin 66-43 on Thursday and Western New Mexico 83-53 on Saturday. The Greyhounds are off to the third-best 20-game start in program history.

Their spot in the rankings, though, will be challenged this week with road games against Angelo State (12-6), sixth in the poll, on Thursday and defending NCAA Division II national champion Lubbock Christian (17-3), fourth in the regional rankings, on Saturday. ENMU ended the Lady Chaps’ 25-game winning streak with a 69-68 overtime win and lost to Angelo 70-60 two days later in games at Greyhound Arena in mid-January.

Unbeaten LSC leader Texas A&M-Commerce (21-0) continues to pace the rankings, with West Texas A&M second and followed by Colorado Mesa, LCU, Westminster and Angelo State. The LSC has six teams in the poll while the other league in the region, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, has four.

Hounds compete in UNM indoor meet — ENMU’s track team competed in its third of four indoor track meets on Saturday at the University of New Mexico’s Team Open in Albuquerque.

Highlighting performances for the men was a first-place finish in the 600 by senior Ivar Moinat with a personal-best time of 1 minute, 20.31 seconds. Also, junior Jessie Madrid placed eighth in the mile run with a season-best clocking of 4:28.84.

For the women, junior Mason Swanson claimed third place in the 600 with a time of 1:37.01, and senior Evaline Cheptoo finished fourth in the 3,000 in a personal-best 10:52.50.

ENMU thinclads are idle this week before completing the indoor regular season in the Texas Tech Shootout at Lubbock on Feb. 14-15. The Lone Star Conference meet is slated for Feb. 21-22, also in Lubbock.