CLEARWATER â€" Freshman Lauren Reynolds took on a starring role for the Moccasins on Friday with two event wins, while freshman Kelsey Gouge set another school record in the 100 backstroke as Florida Southern maintained third place in the Sunshine State Conference Championships.

On the third day of the conference meet, Florida Southern won two of the six events held (the Mocs did not have a participant in the 400-yard IM), with Reynolds a part of the Mocs’ 200-yard medley relay team that took first place before she later won the 100-yard backstroke. That gives the Moccasins six wins as a team, double the number Tampa has in the meet, though the Spartans lead in the standings with 634 points. Nova Southeastern, which has two wins, is in second place with 596 points, and Florida Southern is third with 497. The Moccasins are still well ahead of fourth-place Saint Leo, which has 231 points with 13 of the 19 events completed.

Reynolds (St. Charles, IL) swam the leadoff leg of the 200-yard medley relay and gave the Mocs a lead in the race they’d never relinquish. Gouge (Snellville, GA) and sophomore Catie Carden (Hixson, TN) followed her, and senior Anna McIntyre (Kansas City, MO) finished the race and gave the Mocs a win over Tampa by six-tenths of a second. That was nearly the same margin Tampa defeated Florida Southern by in the 2012 SSC Championships, after Florida Southern had edged Tampa in the inaugural SSC Meet in 2011. The Mocs’ winning time of 1:44.53 was a “B” qualifier for the national finals.

The Mocs’ second 200-yard medley team (freshmen Virginia Summer, Morgan Burns, and Abby Boone and senior Jordon Momsen) also hit a “B” time in the consolation finals, and their 1:48.21 would have been fourth in the overall finals.

Reynolds was also a winner in the final race of the night, the 100-yard backstroke. This time it wasn’t Tampa or a swimmer from any other school that provided the challenge, but a group of Moccasin teammates. Reynolds had an NCAA”B” qualifying time of 56.03 seconds, with senior Stephanie Doran (Flowery Branch, GA), freshman Virginia Summer (Newberry, SC) and Carden finishing second, third and fourth. Doran also had a “B” qualifying time of 57.12 seconds. They’d finished in the same order during Friday’s preliminaries, when Reynolds swam her best time of the season (55.98).

In between the two bookend wins for Florida Southern, Carden was the team’s best finisher in the 100 butterfly, and freshman Alli Crenshaw (Marietta, GA) was third in the 200 freestyle with a “B” time of 1:50.61. It was the Mocs’ best time of the season in that event, and just over half a second behind the winner, Kristen Zielinski of Nova Southeastern, who set the meet record.

Gouge then finished second in the 100 breaststroke, and set a new school record with a time of 1:03.41. Lynn’s Tyne Potgieter won the race in 1:03.33, giving the first-year program its first SSC swimming champion. Both swimmers had NCAA “B” qualifying times. Freshman Rachael Norfleet (Riverside, MO) also won the consolation finals for the Moccasins.

The final day of the championships is Saturday, with five individual events and one relay race to end the meet. For live coverage of the 2013 Sunshine State Conference Championships, as well as a full schedule of events please visit: http://www.sunshinestateconference.com/article.asp?articleID=1852