LAKELAND â€" Six different Moccasin swimmers won individual races Friday, with three of them winning at least twice, and both relay races were also won by Florida Southern in its 165-97 win over Emory University, the nation’s third-ranked team in Division III. The win improves the 4th-ranked Moccasins to 5-0 in dual meets this season and extends their school-record winning streak to nine.
Leading the victory parade against Emory (2-3) were junior Luis Rojas (Caracas, Venezuela), who won three events, and sophomore Raul Garrastazu (Dorado, P.R.) and junior Allan Gutierrez (San Pedro Sula, Honduras), who each won two. Sophomore Juan Tolosa (Guipuzcoa, Spain), senior Thomas Nguyen (Snellville, Ga.) and senior Robbie Swan (Snellville, Ga.) all picked up one individual win, and junior Jesus Marin (Cumana, Venezuela), had three runner-up finishes.
After the 200-yard medley relay team started the meet with a win by just over half a second against the Eagles’ top team, the Mocs got their first individual win from Tolosa, who beat Garrastazu by a little less than two seconds in the 1,000-yard freestyle.
The Moccasins followed their first 1-2 finish of the day with a 1-2-3 showing in the 200-yard freestyle, won by Rojas in an NCAA “B†time of 1:41.51. Right behind him were Marin and redshirt freshman Alec Wathen (Sunrise, Fla.).
The Mocs then increased their lead even further in the 100-yard backstroke where they had four of the five point positions, led by Nguyen’s first 100-yard victory of the season. Freshman Diego Gimenez (Burgos, Spain) was third, followed by freshman Evan Coleman (Yarmouth, Maine) and sophomore Edson Lima (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
Garrastazu notched his first win of the day in the 200-yard butterfly, winning by more than three seconds over Emory’s Hayden Baker. Gutierrez and Swan were then first and second respectively in the 50-yard freestyle, before Swan, Marin, and Gimenez took the first three spots in the 100-yard freestyle.
The Moccasins added another first- and second-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke where Rojas and Nguyen were the top swimmers, and Garrastazu added his second win of the day in the 500-yard freestyle. It was Garrastazu’s first multi-win meet of the season, though he won three events last year in a meet against Bridgeport.
Florida Southern finished things off with a 100-yard butterfly win by Gutierrez, a 200-yard IM victory by Rojas, and a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay that featured both of those swimmers.
Florida Southern will compete again on Saturday in its final home meet of the season, with the 4th-ranked Moccasins taking on #14 Nova Southeastern at 2 p.m.
