Zips Prepared for National Stage at NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships

Friday, March 9

College Station, Texas

University of Akron

NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships

Zips Prepared for National Stage at NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships

March 07 | Track & Field

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NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL | MEET SCHEDULE (PDF) | LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO (FRIDAY) | LIVE VIDEO (SATURDAY) | VIDEO PREVIEW | NCAA INDOOR TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP MEN'S QUALIFIERS | NCAA INDOOR TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP WOMEN'S QUALIFIERS

AKRON, Ohio – The University of Akron track and field team will send four athletes to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships to be hosted by Texas A&M University this Friday and Saturday, March 9-10, as sophomore Lucy Bryan (Bristol, England), redshirt junior Jordan Latimer (Huber Heights, Ohio), junior Matt Ludwig (Chardon, Ohio) and senior Jackie Siefring (Covington, Ohio) will travel to College Station, Texas, to vie for national titles.

The NCAA Indoor Championships, which will be held at the Gilliam Indoor Stadium, features the top-16 athletes in each event and top-12 relay teams in the country.

ESPN3/Watch ESPN app will have coverage of the meet beginning at 6 p.m. ET on Friday and 5 p.m. ET on Saturday.

The Akron women's track and field squad are ranked 30th in the latest United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association NCAA Division I National Team Computer Rankings released on Monday, March 5.

The Zips are the top-rated Mid-American Conference team ranked in the women's national polls.

The Zips' men's squad is rated 42nd nationally (tops in MAC) and eighth in the most-current Great Lake Regional rankings, while the women's team checked in at No. 7.

Over the past six campaigns, the Zips have seen 31 student-athletes qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships.

The Zips' sustained dominance under 23rd-year head coach Dennis Mitchell is even more impressive over the past four seasons as Akron has won seven of the program's nine national titles en route to earning 19 indoor and 36 outdoor All-America awards.

Over the same span, Akron is one of only 10 programs nationally to have scored in both the men's and women's team competitions at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. The Zips are the lone non Power-5 Conference institution included on that list.

Making her third straight NCAA Championship appearance in the women's pentathlon is Siefring. The five-event competition is slated to begin with the 60-meter hurdles at 1:15 p.m. ET on Friday before concluding with the 800 meters at 6:30 p.m. ET.

A four-time All-America recipient, including earning first-team honors in the heptathlon at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships, Siefring boasts the fourth-best score in the country after compiling 4,308 points en route to winning the event at the Akron Invitational (Feb. 2).

A year ago, she earned second-team All-America accolades after placing 12th in the pentathlon at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships with a five-event cumulative score of 4,084.

The reigning NCAA Outdoor champion in the men's pole vault, Ludwig enters this year's championship meet owning the second-best jump in the country surpassing 18-6.75 (5.66m) at the Penn State National (Jan. 26).

A season ago, Ludwig garnered first-team All-America accolades after placing third in the pole vault at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships with a jump of 18-0.50 (5.50m).

He will be matched up against top-seeded Chris Nilsen of South Dakota, who won the 2017 NCAA Indoor title, and whom Ludwig bested earlier this year at the Tyson Invitational (Feb. 9), when the competition commences at 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday.

A two-time All-America honoree in the men's long jump, Latimer will be making his second career appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships at 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday. He placed 10th in the event with a mark of 24-9.75 (7.56m) as a freshman in 2015 and is seeded 15th in the competition based on his career-best indoor mark of 25-7.50 (7.81m) set at the Akron Invitational (Feb. 3).

Bryan rounds out the Zips' competitors making her second NCAA Championship appearance in the women's pole vault at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday. A year ago, she earned first-team All-America accolades on the strength of a fourth-place effort at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, where she eclipsed 14-5.25 (4.40m). She will be seeded fourth in the event after registering a career-best mark of 14-8 (4.47m) at the Akron Invitational (Feb. 3).