ORLANDO – Alli Crenshaw added another gold medal to her career collection Saturday night, and Kourtney Gavin added her name to the Florida Southern record book. With Crenshaw winning her third consecutive conference title in the 500-freestyle, and Gavin setting a new team record in the 200-butterfly, the Moccasins were able to move ahead of Tampa and into second place at the Sunshine State Conference Women's Swimming Championships.
With one day remaining, the Moccasins have scored 556½ points, 29½ ahead of the Spartans. The Moccasins trail first-place Nova Southeastern by 100 with five events on Sunday's schedule. No other team has scored more than 288, with Saint Leo turning in that point total in fourth place.
With their best day of the meet so far, the Moccasins not only got a win from Crenshaw and a school record from Gavin, they also got a runner-up finish from Lauren Reynolds in the 100-backstroke and a third-place showing from their 800-freestyle relay team that featured Crenshaw, Reynolds, Cassie Ley and Peyton Breault.
It was Crenshaw who got Florida Southern going Saturday, winning the first race of the night when she finished 3.4 seconds ahead of Tampa's Brit Bayes in the 500-freestyle. Her time of 4:54.70 gave Crenshaw her fifth win of the season in that event. It got better for the Moccasins after that when Elizabeth Fris and Heather Burns finished fifth and sixth respectively, allowing the Mocs to come out of the A finals of the 500-freestyle with a 47-17 edge over the Spartans in points. They picked up nine more points from Breault and Riley McClendon who were in the B finals, and that combination allowed Florida Southern to move into second place in the meet at that point.
They expanded on their lead over Tampa in the 100-backstroke with Reynolds placing second in a season-best time of 55.36 seconds, which was 0.27 seconds behind Dar Raz of Florida Tech. The Mocs also got a sixth-place finish from Lily Rose, who earlier during prelims had missed an NCAA provisional qualifying time by 0.03 seconds. Alex Ballard also reached the B finals of the 100-backstroke and tied for second in that race.
In the 100-breaststroke, Kelsey Gouge led the Moccasins with a fifth-place finish in 1:04.00 after Lynn's Rebecca Matthews established a new meet record in 1:00.88. Jacinda Whittenburg, who barely missed an NCAA provisional time in the prelims, came in eighth during A finals of the 100-breaststroke while Cassie Ley won the B finals and Morgan Burns was third.
The 200-butterfly saw another meet record established by Nova Southeastern's Courtney DeVeny, and though Tampa was able to make up some ground on Florida Southern with a third and fourth-place showing, the Moccasins didn't lose much with Gavin placing seventh, and Madi Rowen, Catie Carden, and Alex Ballard all placing in the B finals. Gavin's time of 2:08.98 broke the previous school record of 2:09.31, which was set by Carden at the 2012 SSC Championships.
Florida Southern's top 800-freestyle relay team then ended the night with its third-place finish and a season-best time of 7:30.51. The Moccasins' second team of Fris, McClendon, Heather Burns and Wittenburg was second in the B finals.
The final day of the SSC Championships is Sunday, with prelims at 10 a.m. and finals in five more events at 5 p.m.
