Touchstone Named Greatest Greyhound, Lee and Bellum Share Greatest Zia Award

PORTALES, N.M. — The Eastern New Mexico University coaching staff has selected senior football player Ty Touchstone (FS, 5’11”, 190 lbs., Lubbock, TX/Monterey HS) as the Greatest Greyhound of 2004-05. The coaches also chose senior basketball player Laci Lee (G, 5’10”, Portales, NM/Portales HS) and senior volleyball player Anna Bellum (OH, 5’10”, Albuquerque, NM/Garden City CC/La Cueva HS) as co-winners of the Greatest Zia award for 2004-05.

The Greatest Greyhound and Greatest Zia awards recognize the athletic accomplishments, leadership abilities and academic success of the recipients. All three of this year’s winners were given their awards at the ENMU Athletic Banquet in the ballroom of the Campus Union Building, on Monday, Apr. 25, 2005.

Touchstone played for the Eastern New Mexico University football team the past four years. He recorded 290 total tackles during his career, including 187 unassisted tackles. He played in all 43 games, helping ENMU earned a combined win-loss record of 26-17 (.605). He picked off three interceptions as a senior, giving him eight career interceptions. During his senior year, he also blocked three field goals in the fourth quarter of games won by Eastern.

He was selected as a National Scholar-Athlete by the National Football Foundation, which also will give him an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship. He was named ESPN The Magazine First Team Academic All-America for the second year in a row and was chosen College Division Football Academic All-America of the Year. He was named Second Team Academic All-America as a sophomore.

He earned First Team Academic All-District honors three times. He was named to the LSC South All-Academic Team and the LSC South Commissioner’s Honor Roll three times, and was named LSC South Academic Player of the Year in 2004. He has qualified for the ENMU Athletic Honor Roll every semester with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

On the field, he was named First Team All-LSC South in 2002 and was chosen Second Team All-LSC South in 2004. He also was named Second Team All-Southwest Region by Don Hansen’s Football Gazette in 2004.

Lee played four seasons for the Eastern New Mexico University women’s basketball team. She scored 879 career points to rank 13th on Eastern’s all-time list. She also earned 458 career rebounds. She played an all-around game that allowed her to achieve 280 career assists and 126 career steals. She was named Second Team All LSC South in 2003-04, after leading the Zias to a 16-12 overall record, a tie for second place in the LSC South and a trip to the LSC Tournament.

A true scholar-athlete, she was named to the LSC South All-Academic Team in 2003-04 and 2004-05. She qualified for the LSC South Commissioner’s Honor Roll each of the past three seasons. She was named ESPN The Magazine Second Team Academic All District in 2004-05.

She missed all but nine games this past season due to a leg injury. She averaged 10.9 points and 4.4 rebounds to help ENMU start the season with a 5-4 record. She made a brief appearance at the start of Eastern’s final home game of her career.

Bellum played two seasons for the ENMU volleyball team. She led the Zias with 461 kills in 2004, as she averaged 3.6 kills per game. She ranked third on the ENMU squad with 412 digs, an average of 3.2 digs per game. She was chosen LSC South Hitter of the Week on Oct. 18, 2004.

During her two seasons with the Zias, she recorded 942 kills for the sixth highest total in school history. She tied for 10th all-time at ENMU with 806 career digs.

Bellum was named First Team All-LSC South both seasons at Eastern. In 2004, she earned academic recognition on the ESPN The Magazine First Team Academic All-District squad and on the LSC South All-Academic Team. She also qualified for the LSC South Commissioner’s Honor Roll in 2004.

While playing for the Zias, she helped Eastern earn a combined record of 41-24 (.631), including 25-9 this past season. She was a powerful offensive threat, as she led the Zias to their first ever NCAA Division II National Tournament berth this past season.