CLEARWATER â€" With three more event wins on Saturday, Florida Southern finished the Sunshine State Conference Championships with a league-high nine victories in the meet, though Tampa won the team title in a close race with Nova Southeastern. The Moccasins did hold on to third place, however, and added another NCAA automatic qualifying time to their list.

The Spartans won the SSC title for the second year in a row, out-scoring the Sharks 892-867. The Moccasins scored 706 points, but won nine of the 19 events overall. The Spartans and Sharks each won four. The Mocs were also well ahead of fourth-place Saint Leo in the meet, with the Lions scoring 323 points.

Freshman Alli Crenshaw was the Mocs’ automatic national qualifier on Saturday in the 1,650-yard freestyle. It was the first of three straight wins for the Moccasins to start the final day of the meet, with two other freshmen, Lauren Reynolds and Kelsey Gouge following in the 200-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle.

Crenshaw had won the 500 freestyle on Thursday, and won her second freestyle distance event on Saturday. Her winning time in the 1,650 was 16:45.44, which was both a school record, and an SSC Championships record. She beat 2-time defending SSC champ Heather Glenday of Tampa by more than 15 seconds. Florida Southern teammate Heather Burns, yet another Moccasin freshman, finished sixth in the same race and had a “B” qualifying time of 17:25.19.

Reynolds then won the 200 backstroke in a “B” qualifying time of 1:59.93 for her second individual title of the meet. She won the 100 backstroke on Friday. Reynolds won this race by 1.47 seconds over Lynn’s Thalie Carmigniani, with freshman Virginia Summer finishing third and senior Stephanie Doran finishing fourth. Both Summer and Doran had “B” times as well.

The Moccasins made it 3-for-3 on Saturday when Gouge won the 100 freestyle in an NCAA “B” time of 50.89 seconds. She’d already won the 50-yard freestyle earlier in the week by edging out one Tampa swimmer, and this time beat out two of them, including last year’s champion, Erin Plachy.

Freshman Morgan Burns gave Florida Southern its best finish in the 200 breaststroke by placing fifth, and even though the Moccasins did not have anyone in the finals of 200 butterfly, sophomore Catie Carden won the consolation finals in that event, falling 0.38 seconds short of her own school record she set at last year’s conference championships.

Florida Southern would end the meet with a second-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay, with Gouge, Reynolds, Doran and Crenshaw clocking in at 3:27.53. That was also a “B” time for the national finals, and the Mocs’ second team of Summer, senior Jordon Momsen, Heather Burns and freshman Abby Boone had a “B” time of 3:35.04.

The NCAA Division II National Championships begin in Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday, March 6.