DAVIE â€" With freshman Kelsey Gouge winning two events and assisting a winning relay team, and freshman Alli Crenshaw picking up one win and two runner-up finishes, 13th-ranked Florida Southern was able to slip past 18th-ranked Nova Southeastern with a 106-99 victory. The Moccasins’ fourth straight win evened their dual meet record at 4-4.
Florida Southern won six of the nine individual races and split the two relays. The day started with a relay win as the 200-yard medley team of freshman Lauren Reynolds, Gouge, sophomore Catie Carden and senior Stephanie Doran posted a time of 1:49.24 to finish 1.79 seconds ahead of the Sharks. The Moccasins also took third place in the 200-yard medley relay, giving them early control of the scoreboard.
Crenshaw then won the first individual race of the meet with a Division II “B†qualifying time of 10:25.30 in the 1,000-yard freestyle. That was more than 12 seconds ahead of second-place Erin Black of Nova. Freshman Heather Burns gave Florida Southern a third-place finish in the race, and was 1.94 seconds behind Black.
Nova posted its first win in the 200-yard freestyle, but Crenshaw was second for the Moccasins, and Doran was fourth. The next event, the 50-yard freestyle, was won by Gouge in a D-II “B†qualifying time of 24.14 seconds, with Reynolds third. The Mocs then added to their lead in the 400-yard IM, with freshmen Heather Burns and Morgan Burns finishing second and third respectively.
Florida Southern began to pull away by capturing three straight races after that, with the Mocs picking up wins from Carden, Gouge, and Reynolds, the same trio, who along with Doran, got them off to a winning start when the meet began. Carden’s individual win came in the 200-yard butterfly (2:15.05), Gouge won the 100-yard freestyle (52.46 seconds), and Reynolds won the 200-yard backstroke (2:05.72). The Moccasins also took third and fourth in the 200-yard back, with freshman Virginia Summer and Doran separated by .36 seconds.
After a second-place finish by Crenshaw in the 500-yard freestyle, the Moccasins got their final win from Morgan Burns in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:26.02). They closed things out with a second-place finish from their 200-yard freestyle relay team.
Florida Southern will face Daytona State College in its final dual meet of the season on January 26, which will also be the final home meet for the Moccasins.
