The University of Akron Athletics
Zips Track and Field Readies for Penn State National
January 27 | Track & Field
The University of Akron men's and women's track and field teams
will hop back on the road this weekend to compete at the Penn State
National in University Park, Pa. The two-day event begins at 4:45
p.m. Friday and at 9 a.m. Saturday and will be held at the Horace
Ashenfelter III Indoor Track.
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For the Zips, the action will begin at 5:45 p.m. Friday with a trio
of field events. Senior Valerie
Wert, who is ranked 45th in the nation with a toss of 59-10.5,
will get things started in the weight throw while sophomore Brittany
Cheese will look to improve on her standing in the long jump.
Cheese owns the second-highest mark in the Mid-American Conference
with a leap of 19-02.00, which was good enough to win last weekend
at the All-Ohio Indoor Track and Field Championships.
At the same time, sophomore Daryl
Baptiste, senior Collister
Fahie and junior Tyshaun
Peoples will have their turn in the men's long jump. The trio
dominated the event at the All-Ohio Championships last weekend with
a 2-3-4 finish. Peoples led the way with a leap of 24-10.00 (ranked
15th in the nation), followed by Baptiste (24-07.25) and Fahie
(24-01.00).
Cheese and Peoples will next try to qualify for Saturday's finals
in the 60-meter hurdles before senior LaTalia
Jones and a trio of men's runners - senior Marcus
Ferguson, junior Phil
Ferguson and sophomore Dominique
Watson - take to the track in the preliminary round of the
60-meter dash. Peoples enters the week ranked 17th in the nation in
the hurdles (7.90).
The men's throwers will take the stage next at 8 p.m. as sophomore
Nick
Banke, junior Eric
Hubbard and sophomore Austin
Levering compete in the weight throw. Banke leads the group in
the early going this season with a toss of 61-7.75 at the Kent
Dual, which ranks fourth in the MAC and 39th nationally.
A combination of freshman Gabriel
Genovesi, sophomore Zachary
Goulet, senior Max
Hiltner, sophomore Daniel
Jackisch, senior Joe
McCoy and sophomore J'Lani
Pryce will compete in the distance medley relay for the Zips in
the final event of the night at 8:50 p.m. The tandem of Genovesi,
Pryce, Jackisch and Goulet placed fourth at the All-Ohio
Championships last weekend with a time of 10:14.30, which ranks
27th nationally.
Senior KC
LaCross will lead off for UA Saturday morning in the men's 400
meter at 10:20 a.m. LaCross enters the competition with the
second-best time in the MAC (48.48) - posted in the Zips' first
meet of the season.
Cheese and senior Mike
McCall will compete in the high jump shortly after with
freshman Aliyah
Cotton representing UA in the shot put at the same time.
McCall, the MAC's reigning indoor and outdoor champion, is ranked
17th in the nation after clearing 17-4.5 twice at the Akron Opener
and the All-Ohio Championships. Hiltner, a transfer from Ashland,
will compete in the men's mile at 12:20 p.m. Hiltner has posted a
pair of second-place finishes to go with a top finish at the Kent
Duals (4:11.81) this season. Jackisch, who crossed the line at
8:29.63 last weekend, will represent ths Zips in the 3000 an hour
later.
Fahie, who is ranked 25th in the nation in the triple jump
(50-2.5), will be in action next at 3 p.m. while Banke and Levering
compete in the shot put. Sophomore Willie
Brown, who has broken UA records in each of the last two meets
in the 800, is ranked eighth in the country in the event with a top
time of 1:50.65 and will have a chance to best that at 3:10
p.m.
Phil
Ferguson, the reigning MAC Track Athlete of the Week, will
compete in the 200 next after winning the event at the All-Ohio
Championships with a time of 21.23. The talented senior duo of Cassie
Schenck and Kim Lorentz will
follow next in the women's 3000 after finishing 1-2 last weekend.
Schenck's winning time of 9:46.47 is ranked 39th nationally while
Lorentz's mark of 9:47.83 is ranked 48th.
The Penn State National will conclude with the 4x800 and 4x400
relays. Representing the men's team in the 4x800 will be a
combination of Genovesi, Goulet, Hiltner, Jackisch and McCoy while
a mixture of Brown, Phil
Ferguson, Genovesi, LaCross and Pryce will form the 4x400
squad.
In all, the Penn State National will feature more than 10
nationally-ranked programs including the 10th-ranked Nittany Lion
men and the 20th-ranked women. Also slated to compete this weekend
are squads from Clemson, Tennessee, Central Florida, Virginia Tech,
Ohio State, Georgetown, West Virginia, and Villanova to headline a
field of more than 50 schools.
