ABILENE – The amount of depth and talent found among the 10 ACU forwards included on the Lone Star Conference Era Starting 5 ballot produced some very close decisions, resulting in the addition of Rodney Fedell and Caroline Omamo to the fans’ choices of Jennifer Clarkson, Peter Kiganya, Jared Mosley and Claudia Schleyer.
Fedell – designated as his team’s Sixth Man by a panel of ACU Athletics Administrators – finished a single vote behind Kiganya for the second starting spot, while Omamo – her team’s Sixth Woman – received the third-most votes in a field that also featured 2012 ACU Hall of Fame inductee Jackie Bucher and Jamie Meyer, a recent graduate who made two all-conference first teams.
This position also yielded the ballot’s top-vote getters in Mosley and Clarkson, who have additionally been crowned as their team’s Most Outstanding Player. Mosley, who has served as ACU’s director of athletics since 2004, beat guard Randall Moore by a mere six votes for his title, but Clarkson, a two-time first team all-America ran away with hers as she was named on 65 percent of the ballots.
More than 2,100 votes were cast during two months of polling, which took place both online and in-person at Moody Coliseum from Nov. 29 to Jan. 29. The ballots featured only those student-athletes who played for the Wildcats during their time in the Lone Star Conference (1973-2013).
The ACU men’s basketball team began competing within the league under head coach Willard Tate in 1973-74, while the women came aboard in 1982-83 under the direction of Burl McCoy.
The Starting 5 teams will be formally introduced Saturday, March 2 during halftime of ACU’s doubleheader vs. Texas A&M-Kingsville. Games take place at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.
The poll was conducted in celebration of ACU’s 40th and final year as a member of the Lone Star Conference. The Wildcats’ move to NCAA Division I and the Southland Conference takes effect on July 1.
Jennifer Clarkson
The 1996 NCAA Division II Female Athlete of the Year, Clarkson was considered by many to be one of the toughest, most competitive players in the history of ACU women’s basketball. She was the undisputed leader of the 1996 Wildcat team the finished third in the nation with a 31-2 record.
Clarkson finished her career as the second-leading scorer (2,463 points) and rebounder (1,144 rebounds) in school history while making more than 62 percent of her shots from the field. She is the 12th all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division II history, and she is the only basketball player in ACU history (men or women) to have her jersey (No. 25) retired.
Clarkson led the Wildcats in scoring in all four of her seasons, and led the club in rebounding her first three seasons. Her average of 20.9 points per game is third in ACU history, and her average of 9.7 rebounds per game is second in school history.
A four-time team MVP, Clarkson was a three-time team captain who led the Wildcats to a combined 93-27 mark, two conference titles and one South Central region championship. She also played a large role in ACU’s 49-game home court winning streak that stretched from Jan. 23, 1995 through Nov. 28, 1998.
Clarkson was twice selected as the NCAA Division II Player of the Year (1994-95 and 1995-96) and was inducted into in the Lone Star Conference Hall of Honor in 2002. In addition, she was a four-time all-conference choice (1993-96); two-time LSC MVP (1995, 1996) and a GTE Academic all-America (1996).
She was inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame in February 2006.
Rodney Fedell
Fedell, who played basketball for the Wildcats in the late 1970s, was the school’s all-time leading scorer until 1995 when his record of 1,810 points was finally broken by Corey Stone (1,848).
He is still the school career record-holder for most field goals made (714), most free throws attempts (584), most free throws made (382) and best field goal percentage (.617).
Fedell helped carry the 1979-80 team coached by Willard Tate to a 27-5 record and the second round of the NAIA national tournament in Kansas City, Mo. Fedell led the Wildcats in scoring in each of his last three seasons, and he scored a career-high 37 points in a 112-89 win over Wayland Baptist on Nov. 29, 1977.
A four-time first team academic all-Lone Star Conference selection, Fedell was named first team all-America, first team NAIA all-district and first team all-Lone Star Conference after averaging 17.1 points per game in 1979-80. He was named first team NAIA all-district in 1977-78 and second team all-Lone Star Conference in 1977-78.
He was inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame in February 2000.
Peter Kiganya
A native of Nairobi, Kenya, Kiganya was the Wildcats’ leading rebounder for all three of his seasons after joining the Wildcats prior to the start of the 1998-99 season. Kiganya finished his career with 671 rebounds through 79 games for an average of 8.5 per game, and led the team in scoring during his junior and senior year.
Kiganya transferred to ACU following his freshman year at Frank Phillips College and was part of a dynamic squad that finished 21-8 and advanced to the third-round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament. Both he and teammate Jared Mosley were named that postseason to the NCAA South Central Region’s all-tournament team after the Wildcats battled past West Texas A&M in triple overtime and Pittsburg State before falling to Truman State in the regional championship.
Kiganya took off during his junior year as he led ACU in both scoring (19.8) and rebounding (8.3). That season he scored a career-high 41 points (helped by 7 of 9 shooting from the 3-point line) in a loss to Central Oklahoma and his 515 points made him just the 17th player in the history of ACU basketball to score 500 or more points in one season.
Kiganya’s efforts that season earned him Co-Player of the Year honors within the Lone Star Conference’s South Division, and spots on the south central all-district and region first teams presented by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The following fall he was named preseason all-America by Division II Bulletin magazine and preseason Player of the Year in the LSC South Division.
Kiganya again made the first team all-conference as a senior, but played most of his final season at about 70 percent health because of a painful Achilles injury. That year he led the Wildcats in scoring (16.4 ppg) and led both the team and conference in rebounding (10.6 rpg). He pulled down a career best 22 rebounds against Eastern New Mexico, which was four shy from tying Greg McElvy’s school record.
Jared Mosley
Mosley is one of the most highly decorated basketball players in ACU history. He finished his career in 1999 as the 11th-leading scorer and eighth-leading rebounder in school history, and in his senior season (1998-99) he led the Wildcats to the NCAA Division II South Central Region championship game.
He earned several honors during his senior season, including first team GTE academic all-America, first team NCAA all-South Central Region by the NABC, second team all-region by Daktronics-CoSIDA, Lone Star Conference South Division MVP and first team academic all-LSC. He also was awarded a $5,000 NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship.
Mosley, who graduated with a 3.88 GPA, also was a three-time academic all-LSC pick, two-time all-LSC first team selection and all-tournament selection at the 1999 NCAA II region tournament.
Caroline Omamo
A recipient of a NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship in 1998, Omamo is the 10th-leading scorer in Wildcat women’s basketball history with 1,461 points and the seventh-leading rebounder 924. She is one of only six ACU women to score at least 1,400 points and pull down at least 900 rebounds in a career.
Omamo was a three-time first team all-Lone Star Conference selection and the 1997-98 LSC MVP. She also was the LSC Postseason tournament MVP in 1996 and was a member of the all-tournament team in 1997. She was a three-time first team WBCA-Kodak all-district selection and three times was named honorable mention WBCA-Kodak all-America.
She played in all but one contest during ACU’s 49-game home winning streak (Jan. 23, 1995 – Nov. 28, 1998), the most games played by any Wildcat in the streak. She also was a key member of ACU’s 1995-96 team that went 31-2 and finished No. 3 in the nation after spending a large portion of the year ranked No. 1 in the country. Omamo helped ACU to a combined record of 81-13 in her three seasons, including two LSC titles, one regional championship and one trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.
In November of 2006, Omamo was selected to the Lone Star Conference’s all-time women’s basketball team in commemoration of the league’s 75th anniversary.
She was inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame in October 2010.
Claudia Schleyer
The only ACU basketball player to be named first team All-America three times, Schleyer is still the greatest scorer in ACU women’s basketball history. Twenty-seven years after her playing career ended, she is still the school’s all-time leading scorer (2,770 points) and its third all-time leading rebounder (1,086). When her career ended after the 1985-86 season, she was the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division II women’s basketball history, a distinction she held until being eclipsed in 1991 by Dina Kangas of Minnesota-Duluth.
Inducted into the Lone Star Conference Hall of Honor in 1998, Schleyer led ACU to four conference championships – losing just six LSC games in those four seasons – and three LSC postseason tournament championships. Incredibly, Schleyer still holds LSC records for most points (2,770), most field goal attempts (2,006) and most field goals made (1,074).
In addition to earning three all-America citations, Schleyer was a three-time all-district honoree and four-time first team all-Lone Star Conference selection. She also was the conference’s regular season and postseason tournament MVP on three occasions, was named Freshman of the Year in 1982-83, and made first team academic all-America in 1985-86.
Honored equally for her on-and-off the court achievements, Schleyer won a NCAA Post-Graduate scholarship in 1986 as well as the prestigious Olympia award from the U.S. Olympic committee. She also was a finalist for NCAA Division II Player of the Year as a sophomore and senior, and for College Woman of the Year as a senior.
She was inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame in February 2002.
Lone Star Conference Era Starting 5 Teams
Centers: Melanie Carter and Andrew Prince
Guards: Hunter Cooley, Deonna Moore, Randall Moore and Anita Vigil
Forwards: Jennifer Clarkson, Peter Kiganya, Jared Mosley and Claudia Schleyer
Sixth Man: Rodney Fedell
Sixth Woman: Caroline Omamo
