LAREDO, Texas (August 17, 2015) – Dustdevils of the past and future made their mark during the 6^th Summer Pan-Armenian Games in Yerevan, Armenia. The 10-day running of events, which started August 2, included over 6,000 athletes from 175 cities. The athletes, all of Armenian descent, competed in 17 sports.

Recent TAMIU graduate, Stella Ghazarian, and incoming junior, Nayiri Aslanian, both reached the final game for Women's Basketball. Though Dustdevils at heart, they were on opposing squads in pursuit for the gold.

Ghazarian, along with Team Los Angeles, pulled a hard-fought 84-70 win over Aslanian and Team Glendale. Both teams arrived at the gold medal game after being undefeated in tournament pool-play.
 Pictured above is Ghazarian (#1) with Team Los Angeles and their Gold medals.

In reflecting on her collegiate career's impact on the Pan-Armenian Games, Ghazarian said, "Having a college level experience helped me approach every game with a killer mentality.  I've always had a competitive edge but because of my experience of playing at TAMIU, I was able to lead through my actions and was overall a more mature and developed player.  Before TAMIU I was just a shooter, but Coach B (Michelle Bento-Jackson) has helped me become a dynamic player."

The Pan-Armenian Games "History" page explains the basis of the Olympic-style games, "Pan-Armenian games was originated back in 1987-1988, when the Soviet Union made some reforms in the hope of making it possible to invite the Armenian Diaspora (to) various public and sports organizations." More information can be found here: http://panarmeniangames.am/hy/2015. The next Pan-Armenian games will take place in 2019.
 Pictured above is Aslanian (#4) with Team Glendale and their Silver medals. Credit to C.Esmaili Photo.

With much excitement to get the 2015-2016 TAMIU Women's Basketball Season underway, Aslanian commented, "Going to the Pan-Armenian Games has been a very humbling opportunity that has helped pave the way to the beginning of a new chapter in my life at TAMIU."

You can see Aslanian and the Women's Basketball team take the court starting Wednesday, November 18 at the TAMIU Kinesiology and Convocation Building. Schedule information can be found here: http://godustdevils.com/schedule.aspx?path=wbball