Men’s and Women’s Track and Field

The University of Akron track and field team had several athletes place in the top 10 of the Texas Relays held over four days last week in Austin, Texas.

One of the many highlights from the action was Claudia Garcia Jou recording the best jump – 6 feet, 1.25 inches – nationally by a collegian this spring to place second in the women’s high jump. Jou tied for the highest jump, but was awarded second because of the number of jumps.

The men’s 4×400 relay team of Miles Baldwin, Sean Weems, Brent Gray, and Clayton Murphy just missed setting a new school record, finishing in 3:07.36 to earn fifth place. The team fell three one-hundredths of a second shy of their own program-record mark of 3:07.33 set at the NCAA East Regional on May 30, 2015.

Clayton also competed in the 800 meter invitational, winning it with a time of 1:47.38.

Other top-10 finishers for the Zips include Dan Zupan placing seventh in the 3,000-Meter Steeplechase; Matt Rowland finishing eighth in the pole vault; Quentin Cieslinski placing fifth in the decathlon; Mike Ohiembor completing the triple jump at seventh; Terrell McCain winning the long jump; Phil Jagers coming in second for the discus; and Curtis Richardson placing third and Cody Stine hitting fourth in the high jump.

On the women’s side, Natalie Zidd earned second in the 800 meter invitational. In addition, Mackenzie Edwards won the 1,500 meters; Jackie Seifring completed the heptathlon at eighth; Megan Dornisch tossed her way to seventh in the shot put; Caroline Haase ended up second in the pole vault; and Ana Martin-Sacristan finished the long jump in 10th.

Tennis

The University of Akron women’s tennis team split a pair of Mid-American Conference matches over the weekend — first defeating Northern Illinois on the road by a score of 7-0 and then losing a tough battle at home, 4-3, to Western Michigan.

The Zips (13-7, 3-1 MAC) did little wrong against Northern Illinois on Friday.

“Excellent showing today by everyone,” Head Coach Brandon Padgett said. “We really came out focused and determined on every court.”

Sunday afternoon at the LaTuchie Tennis Center was a different story. Akron trailed Western Michigan after dropping the doubles point. The Zips tried to make it up during the singles matches, but were only able to win three of the six matches.

Ariadna Blinova won her eighth consecutive singles match, while Sophia Geier and Carlie Knezevich were able to battle their opponent and gain victories.

Akron will remain at home to face Ball State on Friday before traveling to Miami (Ohio) on Sunday to battle the RedHawks.  

Softball

The University of Akron women’s softball team not only battled the Chippewas of Central Michigan this past weekend, but also the weather. The results were a win, a loss, and a draw in a game called because of whiteout conditions in Mount Pleasant, Michigan on Saturday.

In the first of two games on Friday, the Zips shut down the high-scoring Chippewas en route to a 3-0 victory.

Erin Seiler was outstanding in the circle for Akron, allowing just two hits and a walk while striking out six in her complete game masterpiece.

Meanwhile, Alyssa Nichols banged out two hits and drove in a run to lead the Zips’ offense.

Savannah Fruin and Taylor Kirian each added a hit and run batted in to round out the scoring.

Akron was able to score single runs in the third, sixth, and seventh innings to give Seiler the offense she needed to win the game.

In the second game, Seiler seemed to be working her magic once again. She was perfect through three innings, but then the Chippewas got their offense rolling and cruised to a 5-0 win. Seiler went four and three-fourths innings before giving up the circle to Kelly Hysong, who finished the game.

The Zips’ offense was only able to put together five hits in the game and failed to score. Anna Tarpley was able to connect on two of those five hits.

On Saturday, the game was delayed twice because of snowy conditions. Finally, the umpire called the game in the fifth inning.

A double by Caitlin Gambone gave the Zips (18-16-1, 2-3-1 MAC) an early 1-0 lead in the second inning. Then the offense erupted in the top of the fifth when Gambone led the inning off with a triple. Back-to-back doubles by Tarpley and Fruin plated two more runs to extend the lead to 3-0.

Fruin ended up moving over to third base and scoring on wild pitches and Akron had a 4-0 advantage.

The Chippewa offense, held in check the first four innings by Seiler, countered with four runs in the bottom of the inning, and knotted the score before the umpires called the game.