LAKELAND â€" Less than 24 hours after six Florida Southern swimmers posted individual wins in a victory over Emory, the Moccasins topped that by one in their win over Nova Southeastern. This time, seven different Moccasins were the first to tap the pad and two relay teams also won to lift #4 Florida Southern to a 146-59 decision over the 14th-ranked Sharks.
Florida Southern (6-0 in dual meets) won all but one of the 11 races Saturday, and in six of them, the Moccasins also took second place. That happened in each of the first two races where the Mocs were 1-2 in the 400-yard medley relay, and 1-2-3 in the 1,000-yard freestyle. The relay race was especially tight, where the Mocs’ B team of freshman Diego Gimenez, junior Spencer Rowe, sophomore Edson Lima and sophomore Raul Garrastazu beat their A team of senior Thomas Nguyen, senior Zach Edwards, junior Allan Gutierrez and senior Robbie Swan by just over half a second.
In the 1,000-freestyle, sophomore Juan Tolosa won for the fifth time this year in that race, posting a 9-second win over Garrastazu, with freshman Franco Lupoli finishing third. It was one of two wins for Tolosa in the meet, as he later headlined another 1-2-3 finish by the Mocs in the 500-freestyle. In that race, Tolosa was six seconds ahead of junior Jesus Marin, who in turn was only 0.06 seconds ahead of Lupoli.
Marin got in the win column himself in the 200-yard freestyle where he beat out Nova’s Shane Kleinbeck by half a second. The Sharks (3-3) then got their only win of the meet when Esau Simpson won the 50-yard freestyle, but junior Luis Rojas sent the Mocs into the first intermission with a commanding lead by winning the 200-yard IM for the fourth straight time. The only time Rojas hasn’t won that event came in the season-opening, mostly Division I All-Florida Invitational.
After the break, Florida Southern reeled off four straight wins, with Garrastazu taking the 200-yard butterfly (with Gutierrez second), Swan taking the 100-yard freestyle (with Gimenez second), Nguyen capturing the 100-yard backstroke (with Rojas second by 0.15 seconds), and Tolosa winning the 500-yard freestyle as part of the 1-2-3 finish by the Moccasins.
The final individual race after the second intermission also went to Florida Southern, as Rowe won the 200-yard breaststroke. Swimming in only his second meet since being cleared to compete, the junior transfer from the University of Georgia gave the Moccasins their first win of the year in any breaststroke event with a team season-best time of 2:07.89.
After that, Rojas, Edwards, Lima, and Marin gave the Mocs a 6-second win in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Florida Southern, which has now won 10 consecutive dual meets dating back to last year, closes out the regular season on Saturday, January 18, at 39-time national junior college champion Indian River State College. The meet is scheduled for an 11:30 a.m. start.
