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Homegrown Champions

Trio Of Local Swimmers Help University At Buffalo To MAC Title

YPSILANTI, Mich. — Jillian Lawton had quite a weekend.

So, too, did the University at Buffalo women’s swimming & diving team.

Together, they made history.

The Bulls captured their first-ever Mid-American Conference championship on Saturday, earning a three-day total of 773 points to edge out seven-time reigning champion Akron by seven points.

Lawton (Lakewood/Southwestern), who was named first-team All-MAC, claimed gold medals in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:29.67), the 200-yard medley relay (1:37.82), and the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:17.76); and captured silver medals in the 50-yard freestyle (22.91), the 100-yard freestyle (49.18) and the 400-yard medley relay (3:36.58).

The 400-yard freestyle relay and the 200-yard medley relay times were UB school records and Eastern Michigan University pool records. The clocking in the 400-yard medley relay was a UB school mark as well.

For Lawton, the team title caps quite a successful career. As a junior, she took home the silver medal in the 200-yard medley relay, the 50-yard freestyle, the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay at the MAC Championships, which helped her earn Second-Team All-MAC recognition for the 2019-20 campaign.

Two other local swimmers, Allie Stockwell (Jamestown/Jamestown) and Grace Wood (Lakewood/Southwestern), are also members of the Bulls’ title team.

Stockwell turned in personal bests in the preliminaries in the 50-yard freestyle (23.52), 100-yard freestyle (51.11) and 100-yard backstroke (57.31), while Wood posted preliminary times of 24.72 in the 50-yard freestyle and 53.42 in the 100-yard freestyle.

A program-record 10 Bulls earned All-MAC honors, and head coach Andy Bashor was named the MAC Swimming Coach of the Year, and Russ Dekker was named the MAC Diving Coach of the Year.

“These women have worked so hard for this,” Bashor said on the school’s website. “They deserve this moment so much. I am so fortunate to work with such an amazing staff. They get a lot of credit for our success. … This is the first MAC Championship in our history. It means everything. They have worked so hard to create a winning culture and be great teammates. We will enjoy this.”

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Senior goalkeeper Jarrett Lecceadone (Randolph/Randolph) made two saves en route to earning his first career shutout as Daemen downed Medaille last week in the Wildcats’ first home game in 530 days.

Daemen, which is playing a countable schedule this spring after having its traditional fall season wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic, improved to 1-2 on the season as it earned its first victory since the 2018 season finale.

The game counts as an exhibition for Medaille, a member of NCAA Division III and the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, which was playing its first contest this spring. It marked the first meeting between the Wildcats and Mavericks since 2011 with Daemen snapping a six-game slide in the series.

Lecceadone was one of two players to see time between the pipes during the 2019 season, appearing in and starting eight games. In those contests, he made 51 saves and posted a .614 save percentage. In his season debut against Malone, he made seven saves in a 2-1 loss, and completed the campaign facing 40 shots, including a season-high 10 saves against nationally-ranked Gannon.

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