LAKELAND â€" Taking the lead with a dominating performance in the 500-yard freestyle, highlighted by sophomore Juan Tolosa’s second distance win of the day, and getting three wins from junior Luis Rojas, Florida Southern pulled out a 137.5-124.5 win over the University of Tampa in its first dual meet of the season.
Rojas won the 200-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, and 200-yard IM, but it was Tolosa, freshman Franco Lupoli, and junior transfer Jesus Marin in the 500-freestyle that finally gave the Moccasins the lead for good. That trio took the top three spots in the 11th of 14 races in the meet, out-scoring the Spartans 16-3. Tolosa’s winning time of 4:39.17 was only 0.22 seconds away from an NCAA “B†standard, while Lupoli finished with a time of 4:43.29. Marin was right behind him at 4:43.52.
The Moccasins then closed things out with junior Allan Gutierrez winning the 100-yard butterfly with a “B†time of 50.38 seconds, and Rojas, redshirt freshman Alec Wathen, and junior Dylan Lake finishing 1-2-3 in the 200-IM.
In addition to his 500-freestyle win, Tolosa also gave the Moccasins an individual title in the 1,000-freestyle with a “B†qualifying time of 9:32.10, and the Mocs also got second and third-place showings from sophomore Raul Garrastazu and Lupoli. That helped them out-score the Spartans 32-6 in the two longest races of the meet, a huge factor in the Mocs’ final 13-point margin of victory.
The three wins by Rojas, which included a “B†qualifying time of 1:40.96 in the 200-freestyle, netted the Moccasins 27 more points, while Garrastazu added a win in the 200-yard butterfly in addition to his 2nd-place finish in the 1,000-freestyle. Gutierrez chipped in with his win in the 100-yard butterfly, a 2nd-place finish in the 50-freestyle, and 3rd-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle.
Seniors Thomas Nguyen and Robbie Swan, and Lake also had runner-up finishes for Florida Southern in the 100-backstroke, 100-freestyle, and 200-breaststroke respectively in addition to the three events where Moccasin swimmers took the top three positions.
The Moccasins will be on the road next Friday, October 25, for their next meet against Saint Leo, with a scheduled start time of 4 p.m.
