BIRMINGHAM â€" Day two of the 2013 NCAA Division II Championships saw senior Stephanie Doran pick up two more All-American awards as her college career winds down, and freshman Alli Crenshaw advance to the finals in her second freestyle event of the meet. With Florida Southern reaching the finals in two events overall on Thursday, the Moccasins were able to hold on to their top-10 standing with two days remaining.
The Moccasins did well with their limited opportunities, getting Crenshaw forward in the 200-yard freestyle, and their 400-yard medley relay team into the finals as well. The only other event in which the Mocs competed on Thursday was the 200-yard freestyle relay where they earned a spot in the consolation finals.
Doran (Flowery Branch, GA) was one of the Moccasin leaders Thursday, swimming the anchor leg for both relay teams. Freshmen Lauren Reynolds (St. Charles, IL) and Kelsey Gouge (Snellville, GA) were also part of both teams, while senior Jordon Momsen (Wales, WI) swam the third leg of the 200 freestyle race in prelims, and sophomore Catie Carden (Hixson, TN) did the same for the 400 medley.
In the consolation finals of the 200 freestyle relay, senior Anna McIntyre (Kansas City, MO) stepped in for Momsen, and helped the Moccasins finish second with a season-best time of 1:34.50 that was just one-tenth of a second behind Wingate (NC).
With no Moccasins competing in the next two events, they had to wait a little while for Crenshaw (Marietta, GA) to hit the pool for the 200 freestyle. One day after winning the 1,000 freestyle, she advanced to the championship finals in her second event by edging out Nova Southeastern’s Kristen Zielinski in the prelims by the slimmest of margins (0.02 seconds) for the eighth place cut-off spot. In Thursday night’s finals, Crenshaw again finished eighth with a time of 1:51.54, earning her second All-American award of the week. It also gave the Mocs enough points to remain in the top-10 of the team standings.
Florida Southern then ended the night with a seventh-place finish in the 400 medley relay, posting the best time of the season at 3:46.77. It was the second year in a row the Moccasins had reached the finals in that relay. Doran was the common denominator for both teams, and Thursday’s finish gave her a total of nine All-American awards in her two seasons at Florida Southern. She helped the Mocs place in the top-10 of five different relay races in 2012.
By picking up 24 points in the 400 medley relay, the Moccasins jumped back ahead of Ashland (OH) in the team standings at the end of the night, and were holding down eighth place with 98 points overall. That meant even with only two spots in the six finals events on Thursday, the Mocs were still just two points out of seventh place where they’d been on Wednesday.
Drury (MO) widened its lead at the top by 57½ points over Wayne State (MI), and Cal-San Diego was in third place, 66 points behind. Wingate (NC), which had started the day in second, fell to fourth, and Long Island-C.W. Post was fifth.