The University of Akron Athletics
Message from the AD Contributing Series – Markus Jennings
June 18 | Cross Country, Football, General, Men's Basketball, Men's Soccer, Rifle, Softball, Track & Field, Women's Basketball, Women's Golf, Women's Soccer, Women's Swimming & Diving, Women's Volleyball, Baseball, Women's Lacrosse
Zips Nation,
As we head into the summer months and begin preparing for 2024-25, we thought it would be interesting for our fans to get some deep dive insights from vital areas across the athletic department. In January, we featured Marketing and Communications with Associate Athletic Director, Marketing – Seth McFall. In February, we gained insight from Sr. Associate AD & SWA, Jackie Wallgren on Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) and the Transfer Portal. In April, we featured Fundraising and Day of Giving with Sr. Associate AD for Development, Camden Stockton.
As stated earlier, each month through June 2024, we'll be taking a page out of NFL writer extraordinaire Peter King's book and feature a series of guest columns highlighting happenings in key leadership areas including Marketing and Communications (January 2024), Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) and Transfer Portal (February 2024), Fundraising and Day of Giving (April 2024), Capital Projects and Completed Facility Projects and we'll round out with Budget and Financial Operations.
If you have specific questions about any of these critical functions feel free to send them our way via email or X direct message and I'll pass them along as our team prepares their updates for the Zips community. I'm excited to continue the series with an update from our Deputy Athletics Director, Markus Jennings.
AD Guthrie
Hello, Zips Nation, we have closed the books for 2023-2024 with another spectacular sports year for Akron Athletics. Within the profession of intercollegiate athletics, the planning never ends, and we are looking forward to the Fall 2024 sports season which is only a couple shorts months away.
Our student-athletes will be reporting back to campus next week for summer school and summer work outs. As a department we were fortunate to win several Mid-American Conference, (MAC) championships along with building champions in the classroom and in the community this past academic year. It has been a pleasure witnessing the work ethic of our student-athletes and coaches as we help mold the future leaders of America.
During the 2023-2024 school year the Zips captured MAC titles in Men's Cross Country, Women's Swimming and Diving, Men's Basketball and Men's Outdoor Track & Field. The Men's Country program was reinstated in the fall of 2023 after a four-year hiatus. This was a very exciting comeback season for the team with freshman Timothy Chesondin leading the way.
The Zips Women's Swimming and Diving program continued their dominant ways winning their third consecutive title and their tenth in 11 years! It has been a pleasure witnessing the dominance of head coach Brian Peresie and his staff continue to sustain a high level of success over the last decade.
The Men's Basketball program capped off an incredible 2023-2024 season with a MAC tournament championship victory over Kent State and another berth in the NCAA tournament for the second time in three seasons. That senior class lead by Enrique Freeman cemented their legacy as one of the best classes to put on the Zips basketball uniform.
Capping off our championship team performances was Men's Track & Field program with back-to-back MAC Outdoor titles. Sophomore Brian Masai, redshirt senior Charles Sanders, redshirt junior Hunter Garretson and redshirt junior Jimmy Harkelroad anchored this effort under the guidance of Kendra Reimer-Gonzales who was tabbed as the MAC Men's Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year.
Although we are proud of the accomplishments in competition, we are even more proud of the accomplishments that our student-athletes have achieved in the classroom. In the Spring of 2024, the overall department GPA was a 3.23. Men's soccer had the highest team GPA amongst the men's programs with a 3.39 GPA and the Women's soccer program achieved the highest GPA for all athletics programs with a 3.67 GPA. There were 84 student-athletes that graduated in the Spring, and this is the ultimate reason why we are in this business, helping our young people develop the skills to become well-rounded citizens and graduate with the degree of their choice.
Although our student-athletes have demanding schedules with practice and class, they value putting in the service hours, partnering with the Akron Public Schools, the Haven of Rest as well as other campus organizations. They are indeed Champions in the Community!
In conclusion, summertime is upon us, but the work continues for administrators. Our goal has always been to provide a premium student-athlete experience as our students represent the University of Akron Department of Athletics. We look forward to seeing you all back on campus in less than 100 days cheering on Zips Football, Men's Soccer, Women's Soccer and Volleyball!
#GoZips
As we head into the summer months and begin preparing for 2024-25, we thought it would be interesting for our fans to get some deep dive insights from vital areas across the athletic department. In January, we featured Marketing and Communications with Associate Athletic Director, Marketing – Seth McFall. In February, we gained insight from Sr. Associate AD & SWA, Jackie Wallgren on Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) and the Transfer Portal. In April, we featured Fundraising and Day of Giving with Sr. Associate AD for Development, Camden Stockton.
As stated earlier, each month through June 2024, we'll be taking a page out of NFL writer extraordinaire Peter King's book and feature a series of guest columns highlighting happenings in key leadership areas including Marketing and Communications (January 2024), Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) and Transfer Portal (February 2024), Fundraising and Day of Giving (April 2024), Capital Projects and Completed Facility Projects and we'll round out with Budget and Financial Operations.
If you have specific questions about any of these critical functions feel free to send them our way via email or X direct message and I'll pass them along as our team prepares their updates for the Zips community. I'm excited to continue the series with an update from our Deputy Athletics Director, Markus Jennings.
AD Guthrie
Hello, Zips Nation, we have closed the books for 2023-2024 with another spectacular sports year for Akron Athletics. Within the profession of intercollegiate athletics, the planning never ends, and we are looking forward to the Fall 2024 sports season which is only a couple shorts months away.
Our student-athletes will be reporting back to campus next week for summer school and summer work outs. As a department we were fortunate to win several Mid-American Conference, (MAC) championships along with building champions in the classroom and in the community this past academic year. It has been a pleasure witnessing the work ethic of our student-athletes and coaches as we help mold the future leaders of America.
During the 2023-2024 school year the Zips captured MAC titles in Men's Cross Country, Women's Swimming and Diving, Men's Basketball and Men's Outdoor Track & Field. The Men's Country program was reinstated in the fall of 2023 after a four-year hiatus. This was a very exciting comeback season for the team with freshman Timothy Chesondin leading the way.
The Zips Women's Swimming and Diving program continued their dominant ways winning their third consecutive title and their tenth in 11 years! It has been a pleasure witnessing the dominance of head coach Brian Peresie and his staff continue to sustain a high level of success over the last decade.
The Men's Basketball program capped off an incredible 2023-2024 season with a MAC tournament championship victory over Kent State and another berth in the NCAA tournament for the second time in three seasons. That senior class lead by Enrique Freeman cemented their legacy as one of the best classes to put on the Zips basketball uniform.
Capping off our championship team performances was Men's Track & Field program with back-to-back MAC Outdoor titles. Sophomore Brian Masai, redshirt senior Charles Sanders, redshirt junior Hunter Garretson and redshirt junior Jimmy Harkelroad anchored this effort under the guidance of Kendra Reimer-Gonzales who was tabbed as the MAC Men's Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year.
Although we are proud of the accomplishments in competition, we are even more proud of the accomplishments that our student-athletes have achieved in the classroom. In the Spring of 2024, the overall department GPA was a 3.23. Men's soccer had the highest team GPA amongst the men's programs with a 3.39 GPA and the Women's soccer program achieved the highest GPA for all athletics programs with a 3.67 GPA. There were 84 student-athletes that graduated in the Spring, and this is the ultimate reason why we are in this business, helping our young people develop the skills to become well-rounded citizens and graduate with the degree of their choice.
Although our student-athletes have demanding schedules with practice and class, they value putting in the service hours, partnering with the Akron Public Schools, the Haven of Rest as well as other campus organizations. They are indeed Champions in the Community!
In conclusion, summertime is upon us, but the work continues for administrators. Our goal has always been to provide a premium student-athlete experience as our students represent the University of Akron Department of Athletics. We look forward to seeing you all back on campus in less than 100 days cheering on Zips Football, Men's Soccer, Women's Soccer and Volleyball!
#GoZips
Players Mentioned
Distance
/ Track & Field
F
/ Men's Basketball
Multis
/ Track & Field
Sprints
/ Track & Field
Distance
/ Track & Field
Sprints
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