September 3, 2003

Zips Open Cross Country Season at Lake Marie Relays

In the recent past Akron has opened its cross country season racing against host Ashland and Kent State at the Lake Marie Relays. This year the teams remained the same, but the site was different. Owing to flood damage at Lake Marie, this year's version of the meet was hosted by Akron at the Indigo Lake Course in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The format for the competition differs from the standard cross country meet. Each runner is paired with a partner and they run altenating legs of the 1.5M loop. Each of the women completed the circuit three times, while the men ran the loop four times.

For the first time, three Akron men averaged under 8:00 for the four laps. David Howard and David Pykare each averaged 7:50 and Chris Perun averaged 7:51. Pykare had the fastest split of the day for Akron running his final leg in 7:31.

Morgan Sulzener paced all the women competitors compiling both the best average on the day, 8:30, and the fastest split, 8:25. She was closely followed by Jennie Castle who averaged 8:37.

The Zips will compete in their first scored race this Saturday on the Indigo Lake Course competing against Buffalo, Cleveland State, and Kent State in the Tommy Evans Invitational.