LAKELAND â€" Riding the hot start of sophomores Alli Crenshaw and Lauren Reynolds before getting three straight wins from sophomore Kelsey Gouge, Florida Southern jumped out to a large early lead over the University of Tampa in its first dual meet of the season and went on to a 154-108 victory over the Spartans.
The Moccasins won the first five events of the meet, with Crenshaw picking up two of those wins, and Reynolds picking up one in addition to swimming the leadoff leg of the 200-yard medley relay. Gouge them followed with victories in all three individual races in which she competed, beginning with the 100-yard breaststroke, and following with the 50- and 100-yard freestyle.
Reynolds would later add to her total in the 200-yard backstroke, and Crenshaw matched Gouge with a third individual win in the 500-yard freestyle. The Moccasins also got two wins from sophomore Morgan Burns in the 200-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard IM.
The Mocs jumped out to a 13-4 lead with their two 200-yard medley relay teams, which included Reynolds, Gouge, and freshmen Alex Ballard and Cassie Ley edging out Tampa’s top team by 0.33 seconds.
Crenshaw then hit the pool for the first time Friday and achieved an NCAA “B†qualifying time of 10:26.18 in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Freshman Elizabeth Fris added to the Mocs’ lead with a second-place finish and freshman Riley McClendon also scored for the Mocs in fourth place. Crenshaw added nine more points to the Mocs’ total with her win in the 200-yard freestyle, followed by a 1-2 finish from Reynolds and freshman Lily Rose in the 100-yad backstroke.
After Gouge and Morgan Burns went 1-2 in the 100-yard breaststroke, Tampa picked up its first win of the meet when Jesse North captured the 200-yard butterfly, but the Mocs went on another streak when Gouge hit a “B†standard for the second time in as many meets in both the 50-freestyle and 100-freestyle.
After that, Reynolds and Rose finished 1-2 again in the 200-yard backstroke before Burns earned her first win in the 200-breaststroke. The Mocs nearly had another such finish in the next event, the 500-freestyle, won by Crenshaw in 5:10.20, but Tampa’s Heather Glenday managed to finish 0.01 seconds ahead of sophomore Heather Burns for second, while Burns was less than a second ahead of Fris.
Morgan Burns got Florida Southern’s final win of the day in the 200-yard IM, with Ley finishing second. That wrapped up the Moccasins’ first dual meet victory over the Spartans since 2005.
The Moccasins will be on the road next Friday, October 25, for their next meet against Saint Leo, with a scheduled start time of 4 p.m.
