The Mid-American Conference women’s swimming & diving championships kicked off Thursday from Ypsilanti, Michigan as the Buffalo Bulls have a slim four point lead over seven-time defending champs Akron.<\/p>\n
Team Scores:<\/strong><\/p>\n The Bulls started the championships with a win in the 200 free relay as the team of\u00a0Jillian Lawton\u00a0<\/strong>(22.97),\u00a0Toni Naccarella\u00a0<\/strong>(21.61),\u00a0Jenna Krull\u00a0<\/strong>(22.52) and\u00a0Ellie Duley\u00a0<\/strong>(22.57) swam a 1:29.67 to Akron’s 1:29.86. Notably, this would have been right in the mix at NCAAs as the Bulls are ranked 22nd in Division I this season despite the NCAA championships having already taken place.<\/p>\n Naccarella and Lawton returned in the 50 free to go 1-2 with Naccarella coming out on top at 22.37 to Lawton’s 22.91 as the former already swam at NCAAs this season, placing 47th in Greensboro last month. Naccarella was a 22.5 earlier this season for her season best time.<\/p>\n Akron was another school that had a swimmer make NCAAs this year as\u00a0Sarah Watson\u00a0<\/strong>won the 200 IM at 1:56.42, which was faster than her season best. Watson made the B-Final in this event at NCAAs last month, placing 14th for the Zips as she won well ahead of\u00a0Daisy Platts\u00a0<\/strong>(1:59.13) of Bowling Green. The Zips closed the night with a win in the 400 medley relay at 3:34.85, which is the 26th fastest time in the nation this year. The team of\u00a0Madelyn Gatrall\u00a0<\/strong>(53.84),\u00a0Paula Garcia\u00a0<\/strong>(1:00.35), Watson (51.08) and\u00a0Rachel Schiffli\u00a0<\/strong>(49.58) won ahead of Buffalo (3:36.58) and Miami (3:41.25).<\/p>\n Miami’s\u00a0Nicole Maier\u00a0<\/strong>had perhaps the season of the day with a 4:39.96 in the 500 freestyle, which would have made the A-Final at NCAAs last month. Maier’s time puts her 16th nationally this season.<\/p>\n Eastern Michigan’s\u00a0Bethany Berger\u00a0<\/strong>won the 1m at 303.90 ahead of Buffalo’s\u00a0Tori Franz\u00a0<\/strong>(293.05).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Mid-American Conference women’s swimming & diving championships kicked off Thursday from Ypsilanti, Michigan as the Buffalo Bulls have a slim four point lead over seven-time defending champs Akron. Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":354644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[63940,128005,128132,128131,128134,128141,128140,128139,128135,128002,125612,128133,128136,128137,63971,62259,128138],"class_list":["post-469763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college","tag-akron-zips","tag-ball-state-cardinals","tag-bowling-green-falcons","tag-buffalo-bulls","tag-eastern-michigan-eagles","tag-ellie-duley","tag-jenna-krull","tag-jillian-lawton","tag-madelyn-gatrall","tag-miami-redhawks","tag-nicole-maier","tag-ohio-bobcats","tag-paula-garcia","tag-rachel-schiffli","tag-sarah-watson","tag-toledo-rockets","tag-toni-naccarella"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n\n