Carter, Manirakiza win Paul Goad Award

Pair of ACU standouts named top student-athletes

ABILENE -- ACU women's basketball standout Melanie Carter and men's track and field star Bernard Manirakiza have each won the Paul Goad Award, signifying their status as the top male and female athlete at ACU during the 2003-04 school year.

The award, voted on by ACU coaches, is named for former ACU three-sport standout Paul Goad, who died in 1979.  Goad was the Wildcats' leading rusher in 1954 and 1955, and was a third team all-America in 1955.  He also lettered in basketball and track and field.

Carter capped one of the great careers in ACU basketball history this spring by helping the Wildcats return to post-season action for the first time since the 1999-2000 season.  Carter earned both first team all-Lone Star Conference South Division and first team all-South Central Regionfor the fourth straight year, and she was also named honorable mention all-America.

Carter finished her career as the third-leading scorer in both ACU and LSC history with 1,962 points, behind former Wildcats Claudia Schleyer (2,770 points) and Jennifer Clarkson (2,463 points) on both lists.  She also set both the LSC and ACU career record for field goal percentage (63.8 percent on 715 of 1,120 shooting), and that mark is tied for fourth all-time NCAA Division II history.

Carter set the NCAA Division II record for field goal percentage by a sophomore (67.9), and her 68-percent shooting performance as a freshman in 2000-01 is the second-best performance by a freshman in NCAA Division II history.  Carter also recorded 949 career rebounds, fifth on the ACU list, and her career average of 17.8 points per game is also fifth on ACU's all-time list behind Schleyer (24.3 ppg), Clarkson (20.9 ppg), Jackie Bucker (20.0 ppg)and Teresa Rubart (18.0 ppg).

She is the only player in ACU basketball history -- male or female -- to earn all-region honors four times.  She's also a three-time academic all-Lone Star Conference and first team academic all-district selection.

Manirakiza is in the process of adding his name to the recent list of outstanding male middle-distance runners in ACU history, joining the likes of John Kemboi, Freddie Williams, Joseph Tengelei and Savieri Ngidhi.

Last month at the NCAA Division II indoor national championship meet, Manirakiza won two more individual national championships in the 800 meters and the mile to lead the ACU men to their 29th NCAA national track and field title.  He won the mile while running the majority of the four-lap race with just one shoe after the other was stepped on and came off his foot during the race. The same thing happened at last year's indoor championships in the mile, and he finished second in the race.

He will be favored to win the 800 meters and 1500 meters at next month's NCAA Division II outdoor national championship meet in Walnut, Calif., and if he does win he will have won seven individual national championships in his ACU career.

He is also one of the top cross country runners in the nation, and last fall he led ACU to its 12th straight Lone Star Conference title, fourth straight NCAA Division II South Central Region title and fourth straight runner-up finish at the national meet.

He won both LSC (25:03.2 over 8000 meters) and regional (30:19.90 over 10,000 meters) individual titles, and finished fifth (30:58.0 over 10,000 meters) at the national meet.   He also won the individual title at the ACU Classic (20:02.78).  He was third at the Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival (29:39.47), and second at the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree (24:10), leading ACU to top-five team finishes at both meets.