INDIANAPOLIS – Kelsey Gouge added another All-American award to her name Wednesday night, and her top-10 finish in the 50-freestyle put Florida Southern on the board on day one of the 2016 NCAA Division II National Swimming & Diving Championships.
The Moccasins had only one swimmer in the first event of the meet, the 1,000-freestyle where senior Alli Crenshaw placed 24th in a time of 10:20.65. Though she was unable to add to her championship total, Crenshaw remains one of only three swimmers at the Division II level who have ever won the 1,000 in back-to-back seasons, doing so in 2013 and 2014. Last year's champion in the 1,000, Lindenwood's Alecia McGillivray, finished third this year after entering the race as the #1 seed. The winning time of 9:51.26 by Christina Halverson of California Baptist was the fastest in eight years and the second fastest all-time at the D-II Championships.
With no qualifiers for the 200-IM, Florida Southern had to wait until the 50-freestyle before its next swimmer hit the pool. That was where Gouge placed 10th overall and second in the consolation finals with a time of 23.39 seconds. It gave the Moccasins their first seven points of the meet in an event that nearly had a winner from the Sunshine State Conference for the second year in a row. Tampa junior Marisa Barton finished second to Wen Xu of Drury, but was more than half a second behind her. By way of comparison, Gouge's time as the runner-up in the consolation finals was only half a second behind Barton.
Gouge has now been an All-American (top-8) or honorable mention All-American in the 50-freestyle three times in her career. Including her relay awards, she has earned a total of 18 certificates at the National Finals, tied with Crenshaw for the second most in team history.
Florida Southern also had a team in the 200-medley relay comprised of senior Lauren Reynolds and their three freshman qualifiers, Haley DeGrace, Krystal Karas, and Rebeka Dics. The Moccasins had a time of 1:45.91, but were 0.92 seconds away from reaching the consolation finals. Karas also just missed a spot in the consolation finals of the 50-freestyle earlier in the night, falling short by 0.12 seconds.
Defending champion Queens (NC) holds the lead at the end of the first day with 127 points, and Drury (MO) is second with 86. Wingate (NC), Wayne State (MI) and Cal-San Diego complete the top-five, with all three of those schools scoring between 70 and 79 points. Tampa is the top team from the SSC with 17 points, two more than Nova Southeastern.
Day two of the National Finals gets underway Thursday at 10:30 a.m. with prelims, and the finals in five events at 6:00 that evening.
