LAKELAND – Senior Kelsey Gouge gave 14th-ranked Florida Southern a clean sweep in her three individual races Friday, and senior Alli Crenshaw had two runner-up finishes, but NCAA Division III top-ranked Emory took 10 of the 13 races overall to defeat the Moccasins, 167-78.
Gouge picked up her three wins in the 100-breaststroke, 50-freestyle and 100-freestyle. It marked the fifth time in her college career she won three races in a single meet, but the first time since the opening meet of the 2014-15 season. Her first win Friday in the 100-breaststroke came in 1:05.33, putting her just 0.26 seconds ahead of Emory's Ashley Daniels. That was almost closer than her win in the 50-freestyle where she posted a time of 24.16 seconds, a 0.24-margin of victory. She closed out the sweep with a time of 52.35 seconds in the 100-freestyle, winning that race by 0.62 second.
Crenshaw's runner-up finishes came in the 1,000-freestyle and 500-freestyle, each time behind Emory All-American Rebecca Upton. She wasn't the only Florida Southern swimmer with runner-up status though. Junior Kourtney Gavin placed second in the 100-butterfly, freshman Rebeka Dics was second in the 200-freestyle, and sophomore Jacinda Whittenburg was second in the 200-IM.
In four of the 12 individual races, the Moccasins had two of the top three swimmers entered, including the 100-breaststroke where Gouge was first and Whittenburg third, and the 50-freestyle where it was Gouge first and freshman Krystal Karas third. In the 200-freestyle, the Mocs got second- and third-place showings from Dics and sophomore Peyton Breault, and the same type of finish occurred in the 200-IM where it was Whittenburg and senior Morgan Burns.
Florida Southern's top backstroke swimmers were junior Leah Haney in the 100, and Breault in the 200.
In the only relay race of the night, Florida Southern's 400-freestyle team of Dics, Crenshaw, Breault and junior Riley McClendon was second in a time of 3:35.46.
Florida Southern will have its final home meet of the season on Saturday at 1 p.m. when it hosts #8 Nova Southeastern.
