ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' Athletic Hall of Fame Committee has announced its 2024 class of entrants who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in a ceremony on Oct. 25 as part of Homecoming festivities at Hardin-Simmons.
Lindsey Newcombe Ackerman (women's basketball), Hue Menzies (men's soccer), Madison Reyes Ryals (volleyball) and Arin Spence Salas (softball) are the class of 2024.
Spence Salas joins her husband David as the first husband-wife tandem in the Hall of Fame. Madison Reyes Ryals joins her father Henry Peacock as the first parent-child combination to be honored.
The 13-member Hall of Fame committee made their selections on Friday in a meeting at the Abilene Country Club and all four nominees accepted their nominations.
Each inductee's biography is listed below.
Madison Reyes Ryals
Volleyball
2009-2012
You can't start talking about the history of the Hardin-Simmons volleyball program without mentioning the name of Madison Reyes. She was a dominant figure for a team that went 101-25 in four seasons and won three straight American Southwest Conference titles and finished runner-up in five games of the other one. She never lost a match in the Mabee Complex.
Reyes was a three-time all-region selection by the American Volleyball Coaches Association and was named an All-American in 2011 and 2012. She was also named the ASC MVP both of those seasons and was twice named the MVP of the ASC Tournament. She was named ASC West freshman of the year and All-ASC West first team in 2009 and 2010. She was also named first-team All-ASC in 2011 and 2012 when the conference went away from divisions.
Reyes is the Cowgirls' all-time leader in kills with 1,530 and kills per set (3.42). She played in 125 matches in her career with the Cowgirls. While always a feared hitter with her athletic hammers from the outside and middle, Reyes went through big strides to go from a front-row only player to becoming a very good all-around player who never left the court. She also became a very good server with 107 aces in her career which ranks ninth at HSU.
The Abilene native product was also a standout in the classroom and earned CoSIDA Academic All-American honors in her career and was a nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year. She joins her father Henry as the first father-daughter combination in the HSU Athletic Hall of Fame.
Hue Menzies
Men's Soccer
1982-85
Menzies was a four-year lettermen for the Cowboys as a player and later served two years as the assistant coach. He has been nominated for the success he has had both domestically and internationally as a soccer coach.
He has 35 years coaching which has seen him produce over 600 players in college programs. He coached NY/NJ Gotham in the National Women's Soccer League. He also coached the Jamaican women's national team from 2014-2019 and was named the CONCACAF Coach of the Year in 2018. He has served as a board member of the US Club Board and is a member of the CONCACAF Study Group.
He was a founder and director of the Lonestar Soccer Association in Austin, one of the top clubs in Texas. He also has coached in the Olympic Development program on the national, state, and regional levels for over 15 years.
He was named to the Black Soccer Coaches Association Hall of Fame in January of 2024.
LINDSEY NEWCOMBE
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
2008-2011
Lindsey Newcombe was a physically imposing player for the Cowgirl basketball than. She finished her career with 1,638 points, 1,283 rebounds and 242 blocked shots. She is third all-time at HSU in scoring and the all-time leader in rebounding and blocked shots.
She has the school non-scholarship era records for points in a game (38), rebounds in a game (23) field-goal percentage in a game (10-for-10) and blocked shots in a game with seven. She has three of the top seven seasons in school history in rebounds and the top three seasons in blocked shots. She is tied for the school record for field goals made.
Newcombe was twice named the American Southwest Conference player of the year. She also was a three-time first-team All-ASC selection and was honorable mention in her freshman year. She was twice a first-team all-region selection. She was also a CoSIDA academic all-district selection.
She graduated with honors from HSU and eventually went to nursing school. She has been a nurse and joined her sister Angela in New York City during the height of the pandemic to volunteer for the front lines.
Arin Spence Salas
Softball, Player and Coach
2005-2007, 2008-10, 2013-18
Spence-Salas was a standout player for three seasons. She was a second-team all-American as both a junior and senior. She was a first-team all-region selection two times and a second-teamer as a sophomore at HSU.
She was three times named the ASC West Pitcher of the Year. She also pitched Angelo State to a Division II National Championship as a freshman, before transferring to HSU. She was an all-region and all-Lone Star Conference selection and was named to the Division II World Series All-Tournament team after posting a 23-5 mark in the circle.
In her three seasons at HSU, she posted a record of 62-18 in the circle with a 1.60 ERA with 500 strikeouts. She also hit .363 with 23 home runs and 112 RBIs. She ranks first all-time in every major pitching category at HSU and overall she is in the HSU top 10 in every single offensive and pitching category and holds 25 school career records and 19 season records.
She led the Cowgirls to a record of 91-37. She helped lead the Cowgirls to their only two ASC titles in 2006 and 2007 and they played in the ASC Championship game in 2005 in just the second year of the program. She also led the Cowgirls to the NCAA Tournament on two occasions. In 2006, she had a win over eventual national champion Linfield in the regional.
After her playing days, where she was a standout in the classroom earning academic All-America honors she completed her master's in sports and recreation management She served as a graduate assistant coach for the Cowgirls.
She then spent two seasons as the head coach at Abilene Cooper High School, posting a 29-30-1 record. She helped transition the Cougars from 4A to 5A and the team had its first winning record in nearly a decade in the 2012 season. She came back to HSU as a head coach and had a record of 89-103-1 in five seasons.
