INDIANAPOLIS – Senior Alli Crenshaw came to this year's NCAA National Swimming & Diving Championships already with more individual All-American awards than any other women's swimmer in team history. Thursday night she made it an even dozen. Crenshaw was an honorable mention All-American in the 200-freestyle, while freshmen Krystal Karas and Rebekah Dics were part of two such relay teams for the Moccasins on day two of the National Finals.
With her 15th-place finish in the 200, Crenshaw is now the first Moccasin women's swimmer to be an individual All-American or honorable mention All-American during all four years of her career. It's the third certificate she's won in the 200, and she's also won multiple awards in the 500, 1000, and 1650. Combined with what she's done on relay teams, Crenshaw has a total of 19 All-American certificates in her career, which briefly tied her with senior teammate Lauren Reynolds for first on the Mocs' all-time list.
It was brief because not long after the 200-freestyle was completed, Reynolds was in the pool as a member of the 400-medley relay team, swimming her customary backstroke leg. Followed by freshman Haley DeGrace in the breaststroke, Karas in the butterfly and Dics in the freestyle, the Moccasins finished 13th overall, giving them an honorable mention All-American spot. It was the 20th total All-American award for Reynolds, and for DeGrace, it was her first.
Karas and Dics had picked up their first earlier in the evening as part of the Mocs' 200-freestyle relay team which won the consolation finals in a time of 1:33.32. That was 0.13 seconds off of a school record. Senior Kelsey Gouge and sophomore Britt Aubley were members of that team too, and it was also the first All-American honor for Aubley, who is participating in her first National Finals. Gouge now has 19 between her individual accomplishments and relays, keeping her tied with Crenshaw for second in team history, and one behind Reynolds.
For the second night in a row, Karas fell a little bit short of qualifying for the consolation finals in one of her individual events. She swam the 100-butterfly in 56.17 seconds during Thursday's prelims, which was 0.02 seconds off her own school record, and three-tenths of a second behind a qualifying time to swim Thursday night.
Even with no one competing in the 400-IM, the Moccasins still moved up in the team standings with their 28 points Thursday night, and now stand 16th halfway through the meet.
Queens (NC) continues to lead with 266 points, with Wingate (NC) second with 209 points, Cal-San Diego third with 175, Drury (MO) fourth with 158, and Wayne State (MI) fifth with 133. Nova Southeastern is the top Sunshine State Conference team with 59 points, putting the Sharks 12th.
Day three of the National Finals gets underway Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. with prelims, and Friday night will feature finals in five more events beginning at 6 p.m.
