Laura Wozniak (2009) - Hall of Fame - University of Akron Athletics

Laura Wozniak

Induction:
2009
Class:
1997

1995-98
High Jumper
Bachelor's 1997 | Master's 2000

Akron’s first NCAA Division I track and field All-American, placing ninth at the 1998 NCAA Indoor Championships in the high jump … was also the MAC Indoor Champion that season … set the Zips’ standard in the indoor and outdoor high jump during her time at UA.

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Since she was so tall, Laura Wozniak was persuaded by her coaches to complete in the high jump. She started high jumping in the eight grade and showed steady improvement up through her high school days. Her coach’s technique, but it was Wozniak who provided the strong and deep motivation to succeed.

After establishing the high jump record of 5’6 at Brunswick High School, Wozniak enrolled at UA in 1993, yet she had not fulfilled academic eligibility requirements in order to compete immediately. As a result, she sat out her first year and paid for her own education. Wozinak proved she could handle the college classroom regiment with relative ease. She onto earn four letters in track from 1995 to 1998, during which Wozniak became UA’s (under head coach Dennis Mitchell) first woman track athlete to compete in the NCAA I Indoor Track Championship and the first indoor track All-American.

As a sophomore in 1996, Wozniak established a new UA indoor high jump record with a 5’ 4 3/4” effort. The following year, at the Ohio State Invitational, she reset the record with a jump of 5’ 6 1/2 “ and had a personal best of 5’ 9 1/4 at the Mid-American Conference Outdoor Track Championship. Those efforts earned her UA’s Most Improved Performer Award.

Wozniak earned her degree in textiles and interior design in May 1997 and could have walked away from high jumping.

Competing as a graduate student, the 5-10 Wozniak enjoyed her finest season. She high jumped a record setting- 6’0 indoors at the Smith Barney Invitational in Indianapolis, IN to qualify for NCAA Indoor Track Championship. Then Wozniak earned first-team All-MAC honors when she won the MAC Indoor high jump crown with a 5’ 10 jump. She duplicated that effort in March to finish ninth at the NCAA I Championship to earn her All-America honors and went onto set the UA outdoor record of 5’ 10 1/2 at the Al Campbell Invitational.

She closed out her career by finishing second at the MAC Outdoor Track Championship. Wozniak was honored by the Dapper Dan Club. UA’s NCAA Woman of the Year nominee in 1998, she was inducted to the Brunswick High School Hall of Fame in 1999.

Wozniak earned a masters in secondary education in 2000. That fall she began teaching family and consumer sciences.