LAKELAND – Juniors Kelsey Gouge and Alli Crenshaw both picked up individual wins Saturday and hit NCAA "B" qualifying times in the process, though Division I Florida International won eight of the 11 races overall to take a 124-78 victory over Florida Southern in the Moccasins' home opener.
The first four races of the day were split, with the Golden Panthers winning the 400-medley relay as well as the 1,000-freestyle behind Brittany Fant, who would also go on to win the 200-butterfly. The Moccasins then got back-to-back wins from Crenshaw in the 200-freestyle and Gouge in the 50-freestyle, with each of them achieving NCAA provisional qualifying times.
For Crenshaw, it was her second "B" time in as many meets this season, with the junior from Marietta, Georgia hitting one in the 1,000-freestyle against Tampa in the Mocs' season opener. She finished 1.52 seconds ahead of Florida International's Jess Chadwick with a time of 1:52.59.
Gouge (Snellville, Ga.) followed with an NCAA "B" time of 24.03 seconds in the 50-freestyle, winning her race by 0.25 seconds. It gave Gouge back-to-back wins in the 50-freestyle to start the season, and she made it 2-for-2 in the 100-freestyle too by finishing 1.25 seconds ahead of Jenny Deist with a winning time of 52.90 seconds.
Though Florida Southern's victories on Saturday were limited to the 50-, 100-, and 200-frestyles, the Moccasins acquitted themselves well in the final three individual races too. The Moccasins matched the Panthers point for point in the 200-backstroke, 500-freestyle, and 200-breaststroke by taking the second, third and fourth place positions in all of them.
In the 200-backstroke it was sophomore Lauren Reynolds (South Elgin, Ill.) who was runner-up, and finished 0.86 seconds ahead of freshman Peyton Breault (Jacksonville, Fla.), with sophomore Alex Ballard (Kingfisher, Okla.) in fourth.
The 500-freestyle saw Crenshaw, sophomore Elizabeth Fris (Holland, Mich.), and junior Heather Burns (Hilton, N.Y.) finishing second, third and fourth respectively. That was also the second race of the day where Crenshaw made an NCAA "B" time, clocking in at 5:01.52, which was five seconds faster than her winning time of a week earlier at Tampa.
The Moccasins then posted their third straight 2-3-4 finish in the final individual race of the day, the 200-breaststroke. Freshman Jacinda Whittenburg (Lakewood, Colo.) was the Mocs' top swimmer there in a time of 2:30.22, followed less than fourth-tenths of a second later by junior Morgan Burns (Lake City, Fla.), and sophomore Kourtney Gavin (Jacksonville, Fla.).
Whittenburg was also the Mocs' top swimmer in the 400-IM, and Gavin was their top performer in the 200-butterfly.
Florida Southern's next meet will be on Friday, November 7, when the Moccasins take on another Division I school, Florida State in Tallahassee.
