The University of Akron Athletics
Read the Latest Edition of Zips Line – March 6, 2015
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MAC CHAMPS!
Last weekend was another memorable one for Zips Athletics, as Swimming and Diving and Men’s Indoor Track and Field both earned Mid-American Conference Championships. Congratulations to both of these squads for this fantastic accomplishment! Counting Rifle’s WIRC title and Men’s Soccer’s MAC sweep, we have five conference titles and counting in 2014-15.
Swimming and Diving won the MAC for the second consecutive year (and the second time ever) with a dominant performance, leading nearly the entire way of the four-day meet. In his two years as our Head Coach, Brian Peresie is 2-for-2 with MAC titles and MAC Coach of the Year honors. Eight student-athletes received individual postseason honors, with four each on the MAC’s First and Second Teams.
Men’s Indoor Track and Field won the final race, the 4x400 relay, to capture its second consecutive and fourth overall MAC crown. Head Coach Dennis Mitchell and his staff received Coach of the Year honors for the 19th time in his career here.
Kudos, too, to our Women’s Indoor Track and Field squad, which came so close to giving us a clean sweep of both titles, finishing just three points behind Eastern Michigan. You can see the wonderful culture that Coach Mitchell has instilled in our track program when all of our student-athletes and coaches, regardless of gender, were equally elated for our Men and disappointed for our Women. Overall, 18 Zips earn All-MAC Track accolades.
Also on the conference championship front, Rifle finished eighth in the GARC Championship match – but to give you a sense of how close it was, our score of 4,608 was just six points shy of fifth place. The GARC (Great American Rifle Conference) is the nation’s premiere rifle conference (other schools include Army, Kentucky, Memphis, Navy, Nebraska, NC State, Ole Miss and West Virginia) and we are completing our transition into this conference exclusively.
MORE MAC-TION
As the regular season concludes tonight and tomorrow in basketball, we’re gearing up for another run through the MAC Tournament – and we need you there to cheer on our Men’s and Women’s teams.
Men’s Basketball takes the bus ride to Portage County for our PNC Wagon Wheel Challenge contests at 7 p.m. tonight at Kent State, televised live on ESPN2 (of course, we suggest muting the TV and turning on the Akron IMG Sports Network to hear Steve French and Joe Dunn on the call). While we’ve had a tough stretch of injuries lately, there’s no one who’s better at getting a team ready for the MAC Tournament than Head Coach Keith Dambrot.
We’ll need you at the James A. Rhodes Arena on Monday night (time TBA) for our MAC first-round game against a to-be-determined opponent. All season ticketholders already have your ticket to this game as part of your season ticket allotment. If you have lost your ticket, we can re-print and leave it at will-call – just call us at 888-99-AKRON (25766) to let us know. Remember, part of your season ticket package includes $10 toward our first game in the MAC Tournament, so this game will utilize this credit.
If you received reserved parking during this season, you will be able to park in the same lots (and the same spot, if designated) based on a pass list that will be at the entrance to each reserved lot. Tommy Evans Lounge will operate as normal as well.
We will announce the Monday game time at GoZips.com, through social media and via e-mail Saturday night because we need to wait for the results of the Women’s Basketball games to be played Saturday afternoon. Our Women had a great victory over Miami on Senior Night on Wednesday, and we travel to Bowling Green on Saturday (click here to join our Zips Trip bus trip sponsored by the Z-Fund).
With a win at BG, Head Coach Jodi Kest’s squad clinches a top-four seed and a bye in the MAC Tournament until the quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon at Quicken Loans Arena.
FOOTBALL SCHEDULE NOW AVAILABLE
At the end of last week the MAC released our 2015 Football schedule, which includes five Saturday home games plus a Black Friday contest against Kent State to end the year at InfoCision Stadium – Summa Field. We think it’s a great slate and we’ve already seen a positive response from fans interested in purchasing season tickets.
We also wrapped up our football survey, and we thank the hundreds of you who gave us great feedback that we look forward to incorporating as best we can this coming season. Richard Wendelke is the lucky fan who won two tickets to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Midwest Regionals at Quicken Loans Arena for participating,.
TIMEOUT WITH STILE FIELD HOUSE OPERATIONS COORDINATOR KELCI YEAGER …
Stile Field House Operations Coordinator Kelci Yeager has been working behind-the-scenes in athletics ever since she was a freshman in high school. She has now been a part of the Akron Athletics team for over six years.
Your bio says you’re a foster parent. How long have you been doing that?
I have been a foster parent since November 2012, and I have taken care of nine children in that time either as a foster parent or a respite for another foster family, so that they could go away for the weekend. I’m licensed for birth to five. I had a three-year-old girl, I had a little boy who was three months, and I’ve had two sets of brothers twice for a short period of time.
What might someone be surprised to learn about you?
I studied abroad in South Korea for three weeks and studied sports facilities, so I got to visit the Olympic training center and different World Cup stadium, which was amazing. Once my actual coursework on campus was done, I had to do an internship and a thesis, so I was able to get an internship at the University of Michigan in their ice area, so I do know how to drive a Zamboni.
How did you get started in collegiate athletics?
As my internship at Michigan was wrapping up, I started looking for jobs and applying and got an offer to interview for a job at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., so on a whim I booked a ticket, flew out to LaGuardia for my interview, rented a car – had never been to New York City – and thought I could drive from LaGuardia to New Jersey. I was probably two or three hours late to my interview. I was so lost. I had no idea what to do, and this was before GPS was big. I didn’t even have texting on my phone, so that was interesting. But somehow I got the job, so after Christmas that year when my internship was done, I packed my car up with whatever I could fit into it and moved from Michigan to New Jersey.
Read the full feature story on Kelci Yeager visit the Zips Insider blog.
TEAMMATES OF THE MONTH
Each quarter we hold a meeting for all Athletics Department coaches and staff, and it’s a great opportunity for each team and unit to provide an update. We also recognize some key contributors, or Teammates of the Month, both inside and outside of our department.
The Internal winners this time were Nate Newhouse, our Assistant Director of Ticket Operation; Melissa Powell, a student assistant in our Communications office who is our point of contact for Swimming and Diving, and Baseball; and Newt Engle.
Our External winners were Zac Bruback from the Counseling Center; Gary Goldberg, the Director of Dining Services on campus; and Tonia Ferrell from the Central Development staff. All of these people help our student-athletes, coaches and staff go above and beyond in doing their jobs to help Zips Athletics.
CONGRATS TO …
… Rifle’s Matt Chezem, who was invited to compete in the 2015 NCAA Rifle Championship next week in Fairbanks, Alaska …
… Rifle’s Newt Engle, named GARC Coach of the Year …
… Ger Coppinger and T.J. Kolba, who joined our Men’s Soccer staff …
… Orlando Gonzalez and Kacie Ehinger, named assistant coaches for Volleyball …
… Men’s Track’s Clayton Murphy and Swimming’s Hannah Raspopovich, named Zips’ co-Student-Athletes of the week …
… Good luck to Men’s Golf (starting its spring season), Women’s Tennis, Softball and Baseball, all of whom hit the road this weekend …
WHAT TO WATCH
Here’s a quick video that our Football program put together to showcase all that Akron and Northeast Ohio have to offer, as well as our weekly shows of
Z360 and Zips Weekly …
ASK THE AD
As always, if you have a question or want to comment about Zips Athletics, click here now or at any time on the "Ask the AD" button on the home page of GoZips.com.
Go Zips!
Tom Wistrcill
Director of Athletics
