The University of Akron Athletics
Track Continues Outdoor Season at All-Ohio Championships
April 14 | Track & Field
After sending athletes to two separate meets last week, The
University of Akron track and field team will once again compete as
a complete unit this weekend at the All-Ohio Outdoor Championships
at Getler Stadium on the campus of the University of
Cincinnati.
The Zips will converge with more than 13 schools from around the
state at the two-day event, featuring team scoring, beginning
Friday afternoon. The UA women placed second to Kent State among 16
teams a year ago while the men came in third behind the Bearcats
and Golden Flashes among 13 squads.
Multi events and throws dominate the opening day of the All-Ohio
Championships with the men's decathlon beginning at 2 p.m.,
featuring Akron's Bryan
Dowdell, Bryan
Jones and Jamey
Robson. Nick
Banke, who is ranked 52nd in the nation (172-08), and Bjorn
Johansson will then compete in the men's discus at 2:30 p.m.
before the quartet of Carley
Ballow, Brittany
Funk, Emily
Suciu and Valerie
Wert have their turn in the women's hammer at 4 p.m.
The men's pole vault, featuring Dan
Garrett, Shawn
Light, Kenny
Owens and Joe
Wesley, will preclude the day's running events, which begins
with women's and men's 5,000-meter run and concludes with the
steeple chase and the 10,000-meter run. After strong performances
in the 5k at the Duke Invitational last weekend, Scott
Meyers, who finished first (14:39.77), and Kim
Lorentz, who placed third (17:09.86), will join Marissa
Baranauskas and Gus
Dudek in the 10k.
Saturday begins with the conclusion of the multi events at 9 a.m.
Collister
Fahie, who is ranked fourth in the nation in the long jump
after going 25-11.50 at the Duke Invitational, will look to better
his mark at 11 a.m. and will be joined by Daryl
Baptiste, Tyshaun
Peoples and Darien
Spann. At the same time, Brittany
Cheese and Katherine
Lee will compete on the women's side.
The meet's second day also features what should be a very
entertaining pole vault competition on the women's side with four
vaulters from two schools ranked in the nation's top 40. Akron's
Lee is ranked 24th (13-03.50) while Ariane
Beaumont-Courteau is ranked 35th (13-00.25) while UC's
MacKenzie Fields is ranked 16th (13-05.25) and teammate Michelle
Eby is ranked 28th (13-01.50).
In another featured event, Akron's Tyshaun
Peoples will go head-to-head with Cincinnati's Terence
Sommerville in the men's 110 hurdles. Peoples enters the week
ranked 28th in the country (14.03) while Sommerville is ranked 19th
(13.93).
