CLEARWATER, FL – Led by a fourth-place finish from Peyton Breault in the 200-backstroke, Florida Southern had four more NCAA provisional qualifying times among its individual swimmers, and closed out the four-day Spartan Invitational with another "B" time in the 400-freestyle relay. That showing allowed the Moccasins to finish fifth in the team standings (third among Division II schools), while Division I Rice won the meet with a 272½-point margin over Nova Southeastern.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• With none of their swimmers competing in the 1,650-freestyle, the first event of the night for Florida Southern was the 200-backstroke where Breault placed fourth in an NCAA "B" time of 2:02.16. Ahead of her were two swimmers from Rice, including Ellery Parish with a winning time of 1:58.97, and runner-up Courtney DeVeny from Nova Southeastern who swam the race in 2:00.45. Kyra Fraser was third in the consolation finals and Maria Di Bella also reached that stage to score for the Mocs in the 200-back.
• Krystal Karas gave the Moccasins another provisional qualifying time in the 100-freestyle where she was 14^th in 52.07 seconds, and though Allison Greenwood did not reach the finals, she nearly hit a "B" time during the morning prelims, missing by less than four-tenths of a second. Tampa's Hanna Van Loock won the 100-free in 50.25 seconds, with the top three swimmers finishing within four-tenths of a second of each other.
• Florida Southern pushed two swimmers into the finals of the 200-breaststroke with Haley DeGrace finishing sixth overall and Jacinda Whittenburg finishing eighth. DeGrace had an NCAA "B" time of 2:20.06. Marie-Claire Schillinger from Rice was the winner in 2:12.32, more than four seconds ahead of her teammate, Nicole Limberg, and five seconds ahead of third-place Malin Westman from Nova Southeastern.
• The Owls had their second straight 1-2 finish by claiming those spots in the 200-butterfly. Madelyn Snodgrass and Kimmy Chang were the Moccasins' top performers in that event, with Snodgrass coming in 2:11.90, and Chang at 2:15.37.
• Florida Southern closed out the meet with its A team in the 400-freestyle relay placing sixth in 3:27.09. Katja Hajdinjak had a time of 52.01 seconds on her opening 100-yard leg, which was good for another individual NCAA "B" time. Completing the race for Florida Southern were Breault, Karas and Greenwood. The top team from Rice won the relay in 3:21.61, giving the Owls three straight relay wins at the meet.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Rice, which is ranked No. 28 in the top-25 of the NCAA Division I national poll, scored 1,134 points to win the meet. The Owls won eight of the 14 individual events and three of the five relays.  Nova Southeastern was second with 861½ points, and had four individual wins and one relay victory. Tampa was third with 761½ points, Indian River State was fourth with 366, Florida Southern was fifth with 340, and Saint Leo was sixth with 245.

UP NEXT

Florida Southern will be off for Christmas break before returning to action with back-to-back home meets on Friday, January 12, and Saturday, January 13. The first of those meets will be against defending NCAA Division II national champion Emory at 3 p.m., and the second is against defending SSC champion Nova Southeastern at 1 p.m.