Mocs Defeat Indian River State College 140-64 In Dual Meet

LAKELAND â€" The men’s swimming program at Florida Southern continued their strong performance this season with a 140-64 dual-meet win over NJCAA powerhouse Indian River State College here Saturday afternoon. It was the fifth meet win for the Mocs this season.

Indian River, who won their 37 consecutive NJCAA National Title last season, could not stop the Moccasins as FSC won nine of the 11 events swam during the meet. The only two events won by the Pioneers came in the 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard butterfly.

The Mocs set the tone early by winning the first event for the men, the 200-yard medley relay, by a little more than two seconds in a convincing time of 1:32.50. From there the men would win seven of the nine individual events and close the meet out by winning the 200-yard freestyle relay in a time of 1:23.98, edging out Indian River by less than two tenths of a second.

Getting consistent swimming by all their swimmers the Mocs won the seven individual events with seven different swimmers. Freshman Juan Tolosa (Guipuzcoa, Spain), sophomore Luis Rojas (Caracas, Venezuela), senior Jeb Halfacre (Gainesville, Fla.), senior Stephen Swan (Snellville, Ga.), junior Thomas Nguyen (Snellville, Ga.), sophomore Allan Gutierrez (San Pedro Sula, Honduras) and senior Miguel Ferreira (Caracas, Venezuela) all came away with wins in their respective event.

Tolosa would continue the Mocs’ dominance in distance events as he and freshman Raul Garrastazu (Dorado, P.R.) swept the top-two spots in the 1650-yard freestyle. Tolosa defeated his teammate, Garraztazu, by almost 20 seconds in a time of 16:09.93 and was close to a minute faster than the third-place Indian River swimmer. 

Next up in the meet for the men was the 200-yard freestyle and the 50-yard freestyle. Rojas won the 200-yard freestyle for the Mocs in a time of 1:40.12. Luis Flores won the 50-yard freestyle for Indian River but FSC swept second through fifth, receiving points for second, third and fourth place finishes.

Halfacre would win the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 1:52.72, which was a little over five seconds faster than his teammate, sophomore Dylan Lake (Los Alamos, N.M.) who finished second in the event. Stephen Swan finished first in the 100-yard freestyle (46.50) while Thomas Nguyen led a 1-2-3 Moc sweep in the 200-yard backstroke with a first place time of 1:50.33.

Rounding out the individual event winners for the Mocs was, Gutierrez who led a FSC sweep of the top-three spots in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:44.18 and Ferreira who won the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:06.12.

The winning 200-yard medley relay team consisted of Halfacre, Ferreira, freshman Edson Lima (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and junior Zach Edwards (Jacksonville, Fla.) while junior Robbie Swan (Snellville, Ga.), Gutierrez, Stephen Swan and Rojas made up the the winning 200-yard freestyle relay team.

Florida Southern will get back to the pool next Saturday, Jan. 19, in a dual-meet against Nova Southeastern at the NSU Aquatic Complex in Davie. It will be their second to last meet before the Sunshine State Conference Championships on March 13-16.