CLEARWATER – Led by two of its 400-medley relay teams, and runner-up finishes by sophomore Jacinda Whittenburg and senior Kelsey Gouge, Florida Southern closed out day one of the Tampa Spartan Invitational in second place among the five schools competing. Unofficially, the Moccasins trailed the host Spartans by 39 points and had nearly doubled the score of third-place Rollins. Lynn was in fourth place and Lenoir-Rhyne (NC) was fifth after the first day, which featured three individual races and two relays.
Nearly the Spartans' entire margin came from the first race of the meet, the 200-freestyle relay, which they won by 0.73 seconds over the Moccasins' top team in that event. The Spartans also took third and seventh in a race where the Mocs fielded only two teams and placed second and fifth. Even so, the foursome of Gouge, freshmen Rebeka Dics and Krystal Karas, and sophomore Britt Aubley still had their first NCAA "B" time of the season at 1:35.14.
All four of those swimmers would also contribute to Florida Southern's big score in the 400-medley relay at the end of the night. With senior Lauren Reynolds swimming the leadoff backstroke leg, and Gouge (breast), Karas (fly), and Dics (free) following, the Moccasins were first with an NCAA "B" time of 3:49.60. Right behind them in second was the team of sophomore Peyton Breault, Whittenburg, junior Kourtney Gavin and Aubley.
In the individual races, Whittenburg placed second in the 200-IM, and Gouge was second in the 50-freestyle, with each of them achieving NCAA provisional times too. In fact, Florida Southern had four of the top eight swimmers in the 50-freestyle, with Gouge and Karas each hitting provisional times. Senior Morgan Burns nearly joined Whittenburg with a "B" time in the 200-IM where the Mocs had three of the top eight finishers.
In Friday's only other race, the Moccasins put three swimmers into the finals of the 500-freestyle where senior Heather Burns placed third as their top finisher. Burns, Breault, and senior Alli Crenshaw all had NCAA "B" times in that event.
Day two of the Tampa Spartan Invitational will again have prelims at 9:30 a.m., and finals in seven events at 6 p.m.
