Several current University of Akron student-athletes and Zips alumni made their mark last summer competing at some of the highest levels their sports have to offer.
Grace Nuhfer, a member of the Zips women’s swimming and diving team, made UA history at the Paralympic Games, with the first-ever medal for a Zips athlete at the Paralympics. Nuhfer won a silver medal in the 100- meter butterfly for Team USA in Paris. She also finished sixth in the 200 individual medley and advanced to the finals in two other events. Nuhfer was born with Brittle Cornea Syndrome, a type of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome characterized by corneal thinning and loose ligaments
in joints. She is considered legally blind.
Her Zips teammates Abigail Daniel and Aislinn Holder both qualified for the Olympic trials in 100 fly. Daniel was 23rd overall and Holder finished second in her heat.
In track and field, Zips pole vaulter Hunter Garretson advanced to the event finals at the Olympic trials. Garretson excelled both in competition and in the classroom last year. He led the NCAA in the pole vault during the spring outdoor season and was second in the country during the winter indoor season.
A mathematics major with a 4.0 grade point average, Garretson was also named, for the second straight year, an Academic All America Division I Track and Field/Cross Country honoree as chosen by the College Sports Communicators (CSC). He is UA’s first track and field student-athlete and first Zip since 2012 to earn this honor in back-to-back seasons.
Two former Zips and previous Olympians also competed at the trials. 2016 bronze medalist Clayton Murphy (800 meters) and 2020 team member Matt Ludwig (pole vault) both advanced to the finals in their events.
UA basketball player Enrique Freeman, who led the Zips to 2023 and 2024 MAC championships and NCAA tournament bids, continued his career when the Indiana Pacers selected him in the second round (50th overall) of the NBA draft. The story of his evolution from a UA walk-on to NBA draft selected gained attention in the basketball community.
Freeman is the first UA player to be selected in the modern two-round NBA draft and the seventh Zip overall to be drafted. He was the first since Marcel Boyce in 1987. The Pacers signed Freeman to a contract in August.
Sammy Hunter, Freeman’s former UA teammate, was named to the 2024 Bahamas national basketball team that made it to the finals of its qualifying tournament before falling to Spain.
Story by Jessica Whitehill