Track To Stay In-State This Weekend At Ashland Alumni Open

April 24 | Track & Field

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AKRON, Ohio – After competing in four meets across two states last weekend, The University of Akron track & field team will make the short trip west to the Ashland Alumni Open, hosted by Ashland University, Friday and Saturday.

The Zips will send 25 athletes – including 14 members of the women's team and 11 from the men's side – to the annual meet, which begins with the men's and women's hammer throw Friday afternoon and continues with the remaining events Saturday.

This weekend will mark the 2014 outdoor debut for a couple of Mid-American Conference Champions in Brad Hough and Martel Durant. Hough, who was a member of a pair of championship DMR teams, is scheduled to compete in the 1,500-meters while Durant, who swept the league's high jump titles in 2013, will resume his role with the track program after competing for the Zips football team during the spring.

The long jump, shot put and discus competitions will start the action Saturday at 10 a.m., followed by the pole vault and high jump at 11 a.m. The first running event – men's 3,000-meter steeplechase – will begin at 12:15 p.m.

For more information, log on to GoAshlandEagles.com.

Through the first four weeks of the Outdoor season, the Zips men's team is ranked third in the Great Lakes Region and the women are ranked fifth.

Individually, Akron has a number of athletes ranked highly in the NCAA. Shawn Barber, the 2014 Indoor pole vault champion, is currently ranked No. 2 in the country while Brittany Funk is the nation's No. 2 ranked athlete in the hammer throw. Additionally, Alex McCune, the MAC's reigning field athlete and scholar athlete of the week, is ranked No. 5 in the decathlon and Alexis Cooks, a two-time MAC champion in the discus, is ranked 14th in the NCAA for her event.