BIRMINGHAM â€" Alli Crenshaw did it again. For the second time at the NCAA Division II National Championships, the freshman swimmer gave Florida Southern an individual title by winning the longest race of the week. Crenshaw captured the 1,650-yard freestyle in a school-record time of 16:42.58, and joins former Moccasin Mary O’Sullivan as a 2-time national champ.
The Moccasins had two participants in the 1,650 on Saturday, with freshman Heather Burns (Lake City, FL) swimming in one of the earlier heats, and Crenshaw swimming in the final one. Burns fell only three one-hundredths of a second off her personal best time with a 17:25.22, while Crenshaw broke the school record she set at the Sunshine State Conference championships in February. She was just under three seconds faster on Saturday, and she defeated second-place Kassandra McNichol of West Chester by 10.86 seconds.
That gave Crenshaw her team-high fourth individual All-American award of the week after she had won the 1,000 freestyle on Wednesday, and reached the finals of the 200 and 500. Florida Southern’s only other 2-time individual champion is O’Sullivan, who won the 200 freestyle and the 200 backstroke in 2011 as a senior.
Check back later tonight for final results from the NCAA Division II National Finals.