ORLANDO – The first gold medal of the 2016 Sunshine State Conference Championships was handed to Florida Southern senior Alli Crenshaw Thursday night, and the Moccasins added a pair of silvers to their collection a little bit later. That was enough to give Florida Southern the lead at the end of day one, 17½ points ahead of Nova Southeastern.
The Moccasins scored 195 points in the four events that were held, with the Sharks scoring 177½. Tampa was third with 129½, Saint Leo was fourth with 89, and Lynn was fifth with 81. Florida Tech (44 points) and Rollins (35 points) were sixth and seventh.
Crenshaw won the 1,000-freestyle with an NCAA provisional time of 10:08.82 to beat out Tampa's Makayla Ayers by 2.13 seconds. It was the closest 1,000-freestyle championship race in the six years it's been held. It gives Crenshaw six individual conference titles in her career though it was the first time she won the 1,000. She was the SSC silver medalist in 2015.
The Moccasins also got points from senior Heather Burns who was fourth in 10:15.55, junior Madi Rowan who was 10th in 10:38.89, and junior Riley McClendon who was 15th in 10:46.49. All of those were season-best times, and it was enough to give Florida Southern a scant one-point lead over Nova Southeastern and a 4-point advantage over Tampa after one race.
Senior Kelsey Gouge gave Florida Southern its first silver medal by finishing as the runner-up in the 50-freestyle. Her NCAA "B" time of 23.31 seconds was 0.28 seconds behind Tampa's Marisa Barton. Gouge now has a total of three SSC medals in the 50-freestyle during her college career.
Two more Florida Southern swimmers reached the championship finals of the 50-freestyle with freshmen Krystal Karas and Rebeka Dics placing sixth and eighth respectively. Karas had an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 23.76 seconds, and Dics matched her best time of the season at 24.06, missing the NCAA "B" mark by just one one-hundredth of a second. On the other hand, sophomore Peyton Breault made the potential qualifying time in the consolation finals where she clocked in at 24.01 seconds. Sophomore Britt Aubley and junior Leah Haney were also in the consolation finals, which gave Florida Southern a league-high six swimmers who scored points in the 50-freestyle.
The Moccasins' second silver medal came from their 200-medley relay team of senior Lauren Reynolds, sophomore Jacinda Whittenburg, Karas and Aubley. They posted a time of 1:44.87 to finish 1.92 seconds behind Nova Southeastern. Florida Southern is the only school to place either first or second in that event all six years of the SSC Championships, and they kept that streak alive by finishing 0.56 seconds ahead of Saint Leo. Their lead over the Lions was only 0.06 seconds before Aubley allowed them to pull away on the freestyle leg.
In Thursday's 200-individual medley, the Moccasins had both senior Morgan Burns and Whittenburg hit NCAA "B" times in the championship finals where they finished fourth and sixth respectively. Burns' time of 2:05.06 was the best by a Moccasin swimmer this year, and Whittenburg's time of 2:05.31 was their second best. Even more importantly for Burns, it made her an NCAA provisional qualifier for the first time this season in the 200-IM. It also marked the third time in her career she was the Moccasins' top swimmer at the SSC Championships in the 200-IM, and it was their best time at the SSC meet in five years.
Two more Moccasins, freshman Haley DeGrace and junior Kourtney Gavin, took the top two spots in the consolation finals of the 200-IM, meaning Florida Southern had four of the top 10 swimmers overall. No other school had more than two of the top 10.
Lynn senior Rebecca Matthews won the 200-IM for the second year in a row, clocking in at 2:02.07 to win by a little over two seconds.
Day two of the SSC Championships begins Friday morning at 10 a.m. with preliminaries, and ends Friday night with finals in five events.
