ELON – Elon Athletics had a conference-best eight student-athletes recognized as 2025-26 Coastal Athletic Association Leadership and Sport Excellence Award winners, as announced by the league office Thursday.
 
Elon's honorees were Lawson Wheeler (baseball), Nate Mars (men's cross country), Ashley Lafontaine (women's golf), Mia Zebley (women's lacrosse), Jackson Leavitt (men's soccer), Payton Swart (softball), Veljko Krstic (men's tennis) and Lizzie Lopez (women's track & field).
 
The Phoenix earned eight of the 13 awards in which Elon fields a program. Elon's eight honorees were five more than any other CAA institution, with UNCW ranking second with three. It marks the fourth time in the past five years that Elon has paced the conference in Leadership and Sport Excellence Award winners and the fifth consecutive year the Phoenix has had at least four honorees.
 
The Leadership and Sport Excellence Award mirrors the Chuck Boone Leadership Award in football and the Dean Ehlers Leadership Award in men's and women's basketball. One student-athlete is selected in each of the other sports sponsored by the conference. Honorees represent the highest standards of teamwork, integrity, leadership and sportsmanship in their academic and athletic achievements. Nominees must be at the junior, senior or graduate academic level, with winners selected by the CAA Faculty Representatives.
 
Lawson Wheeler, Baseball
Wheeler graduated with a degree in exercise science and a minor in psychology while maintaining a 3.778 GPA. A team captain in 2026, Wheeler also served on Elon's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, including two years as a committee chair, and participated in the Phoenix Leadership Academy. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in spring 2026 and appeared in a career-high 41 games for Elon this season, collecting 13 hits, nine runs scored and going 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts.
 
Nate Mars, Men's Cross Country
Mars, a finance and business analytics major with a 3.832 GPA, served as a team captain and three-year secretary of Elon's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. He was also a Beta Alpha Psi officer and previously received the men's cross country team's Leadership Award. Competitively, Mars was Elon's top finisher at both the 2025 CAA Championships and NCAA Southeast Regional, running personal records at both meets. He also ranks among the program's top 10 performers in both the 8K and 10K.
 
Ashley Lafontaine, Women's Golf
Lafontaine graduated with a degree in accounting while posting a 3.992 GPA. A two-year team captain and SAAC member, she received Elon's Browne Leadership and Sportsmanship Award in 2026 and the A.L. Hook Scholar-Athlete Award in 2025. Lafontaine was a 2026 All-CAA First Team selection, earned CAA All-Championship Team honors in 2025 and finished her career ranked No. 1 in program history in career stroke average. She was also a three-time WGCA All-America Scholar.
 
Mia Zebley, Women's Lacrosse
Zebley is double majoring in sport management and media analytics and has maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA. She received Elon's A.L. Hook Scholar-Athlete Award in 2026 and serves as vice president of Elon's Sport Management Society, while also contributing to Elon News Network's analytics team and the School of Communications Dean's Student Advisory Board. On the field, Zebley appeared in all 17 games this spring and finished tied for third on the team with six assists.
 
Jackson Leavitt, Men's Soccer
Leavitt completed his undergraduate degree with a double major in finance and business analytics before earning a master's degree in business analytics. He posted a 3.932 graduate GPA and 3.797 undergraduate GPA, was named CAA Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year and earned United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-America honors. A team captain, Leavitt was an All-CAA First Team goalkeeper in 2025 after leading the CAA in goals against average and save percentage while helping Elon win the CAA Tournament title.
 
Payton Swart, Softball
Swart graduated with a degree in marketing and business analytics while maintaining a 3.914 GPA. A two-year team captain, she was active in Fellowship of Christian Athletes leadership and took part in service initiatives through Morgan's Message, Operation Christmas Child, Elon Community Church and Alamance Girls in Motion. Swart started all 51 games for Elon in 2026, finishing third on the team with a .261 batting average while adding 31 hits, 20 runs scored and eight multi-hit games.
 
Veljko Krstic, Men's Tennis
Krstic graduated with a degree in finance and business analytics and a 3.729 GPA. He was named to the President's or Dean's List six times and participated in the Phoenix Leadership Academy. A team captain, Krstic was a seven-time All-CAA selection across singles and doubles, including three straight First Team singles honors. He rose as high as No. 60 in the ITA singles rankings this season and helped lead Elon to its first CAA championship since 2019.
 
Lizzie Lopez, Women's Track & Field
Lopez graduated with a degree in biology with a concentration in foundations for medical sciences while maintaining a 3.936 GPA. A two-year team captain, she completed the Phoenix Leadership Academy and was involved in undergraduate research, presenting a "Comparative Analysis of Chromatin Accessibility Across Leukemia Subtypes". Lopez was a CAA champion in both the pentathlon (2025) and heptathlon (2025, 2026) during her Elon career and helped lead the Phoenix to five total CAA team championships.
 
CAA 2025-26 Leadership & Sport Excellence Awards
Baseball - Lawson Wheeler, Elon
Men's Cross Country - Nate Mars, Elon
Women's Cross Country - Cayden Crismon, Charleston
Field Hockey - Kelly Levengood, Hofstra
Men's Golf - Gray Mitchum, UNCW
Women's Golf - Ashley Lafontaine, Elon
Men's Lacrosse - Robbie Smith, Stony Brook
Women's Lacrosse - Mia Zebley, Elon
Rowing - Sam Staubach, Monmouth
Men's Soccer - Jackson Leavitt, Elon
Women's Soccer - Madisyn Strange, Hampton
Softball - Payton Swart, Elon
Men's Swimming & Diving - Sebastian Smith, Drexel
Women's Swimming & Diving - Cassidy Lima, UNCW
Men's Tennis - Veljko Krstic, Elon
Women's Tennis - Gabriela Glickstein, UNCW
Men's Track & Field - Brunner Williams, Northeastern
Women's Track & Field - Lizzie Lopez, Elon
Volleyball - Aley Client - Campbell
 
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