Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Former Lady Jays Power At SAU

Rachel Young, a 6-0 senior for the Southern Arkansas University Riderettes, is nearing the end of her record-shattering career with SAU.

A former standout for Coach Glyndon Franklin of Nevada High School, Young has collected numerous honors at SAU. She was All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference last year, the AIC Player of the Week, and has been the NAIA Southwest Region Player of the week this season.

Young has shattered numerous records with the Riderettes. She became the second leading scorer of all time at SAU her second game of the year, and came into this season with a school career record for rebounds with 762, season rebounds with 273, career two-point field goals of 575 and career blocked shots with 54.

She currently has scored 1,731 points (only Gail Buffington-Sanders had more with 1,913 from 1984-1988); she now has 922 career rebounds (Sanders had the previous record of 734); her rebound total for this season is a team-high 188; she now has 706 two-point field goals (Sanders is second with 524); and career blocked shots now total 61 (Pat King is second with 30 set from 1978-1982).

Now in the Gulf South Conference, Young is sixth in the conference in scoring with 340 points for an 18.9 average and sixth in rebounding with 188 for a 10.4 average. She would have more impressive statistics had she not sufferred an eye injury against the University of Central Arkansas with only 30 seconds gone in the game. She had no statistics for this game but was charged with one minute of playing time, thus counting as a game played, according to NCAA rules. She had another finger-in-the-eye incident against Ouachita Baptist and lost five minutes playing time in the second half. SAU led when she went to the bench but trailed by 10 points when she returned.

Rachel, a kinesiology major, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Young of Rosston.

Rhunda Mixon of Waldo is a senior on the Southern Arkansas University Riderette basketball team. A 5-9 forward, Mixon played high school basketball at Nevada High School for coach Glyndon Franklin for three years, earning All-District, All-Region, and All-State honors.

At SAU, Mixon has been All-AIC honorable mention and all NAIA Region honorable mention. She averaged 8.4 points and 8 rebounds a game her junior year against Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference competition and this year in the Gulf South Conference, averages 6.8 points and 6.4 rebounds. She has been second on the team the past two years in rebounding. She is a very physical defensive player.

A psychology major, Rhunda is the daughter of Chester and Jerdene Mixon of Waldo. Her hobby is doing hair.