Tennis

The University of Akron women’s tennis team split a pair of matches over the weekend. On Friday, the team traveled to Wright State and finished the evening with another victory, 6-1, to push their record to 4-0 on the season.

The No. 1 doubles team of Karalina Maksimava and Shannon Newnes earned a 6-4 win and the Zips swept all of the singles matches on the day.

Maksimava and Newnes took both of their singles contests as well as Sophia Geier, Ariadna Blinova, Carli Knezevich, and Martina Zerbola, who came up victorious.

On Saturday, the team came home to host West Virginia and wound up on the short end of a 5-2 decision.

Singles players Blinova and Luisa Echeverry were the two victors in the match against the Mountaineers. With the loss, Akron drops to 4-1.

Track and Field

The University of Akron track and field teams continue to set school records this past weekend in the 12th annual Akron Invitational at Stile Athletics Field House.

Jackie Siefring won the women’s pentathlon on Friday night with a school-record score of 4,089. Siefring placed first in three of the five events, and recorded a second-place finish in one other.

Also on Friday, Phil Jagers earned top honors in the discus with a toss of 191 feet, 2.50 inches. Bryce Jones won the long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 7 inches.

The highlight on Saturday was easily the running of Clayton Murphy, who ran the first under-four-minute mile in Akron history when he crossed the line with a time of 3:57.11. Murphy’s time is the third-fastest in the country this year and is just a mere .24 seconds slower than the national leader.

Daniella Johnson smashed the school record en route to winning the long jump with a leap of 20-9. That mark is the 13th best in the country this year.

On the day, the Zips racked up a total of 11 first-place finishes.

On the women’s side gaining the firsts were Alexandra Blair in 3,000 meters (10:32.18), Daziah Green in the 200 meters (24.59), Natalie Zidd in the 800 meters (2:09.52), and Claudia Garcia Jou in the high jump (6-0.50).

For the men, Miles Baldwin in the 200 meters (21.83), Brent Gray in the 400 meters (47.55),  Curtis Richardson in the high jump (6-11.75), Terrell McClain in the long jump (24-8.25) and Alex McCune in the heptathlon (5,681) bested the field in their events.

McCune’s point total was enough to put him in the 10th position nationally.