ORLANDO – Florida Southern finished day two of the Sunshine State Conference Championships strong with a second-place finish in the 400-medley relay, while several freshmen again made their presence felt all throughout the lineup. That allowed the Moccasins to stay 9½ points behind Tampa in third place and open up a lot more breathing room over fourth-place Saint Leo halfway through the championship meet.
The Moccasins started the night with a third-place finish in the 200-freestyle relay where sophomore Cassie Ley (Hilton Head, S.C.), freshman Britt Aubley (Jacksonville, Fla.), freshman Allie Kaufmann (Denville, N.J.) and sophomore Lily Rose (Rockley Barbados) turned in a time of 1:36.42. Nova Southeastern took gold with a meet-record time of 1:33.05.
Freshman Jacinda Whittenburg (Lakewood, Colo.), who won the consolation finals in the 200-IM on Thursday, looked good again in the 400-IM, placing fourth in a career-best time of 4:31.58 to strengthen her cause for a spot at nationals with another NCAA "B" time in that event. It was also the best time ever posted by a Moccasin in the SSC Championship finals of the 400-IM.
Whittenburg was joined in the finals by junior Morgan Burns (Hilton, N.Y.) and sophomore Elizabeth Fris (Holland, Mich.), with Fris earning her spot after knocking off more than 20 seconds from her seed time during prelims. Junior Heather Burns (Lake City, Fla.) was strong too in the 400-IM, posting a season-best time of 4:30.23 in the consolation finals, a time that would have put her fourth in the championship finals. The gold medal was won by Nova Southeastern's Courtney DeVeny, who set another meet record for the Sharks at 4:16.83.
Florida Southern did not have any qualifiers for the championship race in the 100-butterfly, though senior Catie Carden (Hixson, Tenn.) missed by only three one-hundredths of a second. She still had her best time of the season and went on to race in the consolation finals with Aubley and sophomore Kourtney Gavin (Jacksonville, Fla.). Rollins took home its first gold medal of the meet with junior Audrey Kula winning the title for the second time in three years in 59.77 seconds.
The Moccasins were able to push five swimmers through to either the A finals or the B finals of the 200-freestyle, where they were led by Peyton Breault. The freshman from Jacksonville placed sixth in a time of 1:53.34, two seconds ahead of junior Kelsey Gouge (Snellville, Ga.). Nova Southeastern notched its third win of the night with Emma Wahlstrom setting the Sharks' third meet record of the night.
In the consolation final of the 200-freestyle, however, Florida Southern junior Alli Crenshaw (Marietta, Ga.) swam a time of 1:51.61 to win that race, which was the fourth fastest overall on Friday, including the prelims. Ley and sophomore Riley McClendon (Mansfield, Texas) also reached the consolation finals of the 200-freestyle.
Florida Southern then ended the night strong with a silver medal in the A finals 400-medley relay. With junior Lauren Reynolds (South Elgin, Ill.) swimming leadoff, followed by Gouge, Carden and Breault, the Moccasins had a time of 3:50.25, which was topped by only Nova Southeastern's meet-record time of 3:45.75.
The Moccasins were also second in the B finals of the 400-medley relay with a team of Rose, Morgan Burns, Gavin and Crenshaw just 0.33 seconds behind Tampa.
Those finishes by the 400-medley relay teams gave Florida Southern 362 points in the meet, 164 ahead of 4th-place Saint Leo. Nova Southeastern leads with 444½, and Tampa is second with 371½.
Day three of the SSC Championships begins with prelims Saturday morning at 10 a.m., and concludes Saturday night at 6 p.m. with finals in five more events.
