FORT PIERCE â€" Senior Robbie Swan and junior Allan Gutierrez teamed up in the 200-yard medley relay to help Florida Southern take the early lead Saturday before each went on to win two individual events. Distance swimmers Juan Tolosa and Franco Lupoli also added their names to the victory list as 4th-ranked Florida Southern defeated Indian River State, the top junior college team in the country, 114½-90½.
For the first time in their 10-year history, the Moccasins went undefeated in dual meets, with Saturday’s win over the Pioneers giving them a 7-0 record. They won the first seven races of the meet, and eight of 11 overall. In addition to Swan (Snellville, Ga.), Gutierrez (San Pedro Sula, Honduras), Tolosa (Guipuzcoa, Spain), and Lupoli (Weston, Fla.), the Mocs also received a win from junior Luis Rojas (Caracas, Venezuela).
Florida Southern’s first win Saturday came from its 200-yard medley relay team and it was senior Thomas Nguyen (Snellville, Ga.) and junior Spencer Rowe (Chattanooga, Tenn.) who were paired with Gutierrez and Swan. That foursome was swimming together for the second time in a row, and for the second time in as many meets, they were victorious. Their time of 1:33.43 was only three one-hundredths of a second off their previous time when they won against Emory a week earlier.
The first individual race of the day was the 1,000-yard freestyle where Tolosa, Lupoli, and sophomore Raul Garrastazu (Dorado, P.R.) finished 1-2-3 for the fourth time in seven races this year. It was Tolosa’s sixth win in that event, and his 9:40.64 allowed the sophomore swimmer to finish a little over four seconds ahead of Lupoli, and roughly 9½ seconds ahead of Garrastazu. They combined to give Florida Southern a commanding early lead, one they built upon when Gutierrez and junior Jesus Marin (Cumana, Venezuela) were first and second in the 200-yard freestyle.
Swan earned his first individual win in the 50-yard freestyle, clocking in at 21.32 seconds. Rojas followed with his win in the 200-yard IM, his fifth straight, and five events into the meet, the Mocs had more than double the point total of the Pioneers.
The 100-yard butterfly actually produced a tie for first place, with Gutierrez and Heinrich Alberts of IRSC each swimming the race in 50.68 seconds. The Mocs also got a third-place finish from sophomore Edson Lima (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Swan then notched his second win of the afternoon by taking the 100-yard freestyle by 0.37 seconds over Michael Ragan of IRSC. Again the Mocs came in third, with Marin doing the honors.
Indian River ended the winning streak by Florida Southern when the Pioneers’ Stefan Stojmenovic beat out freshman Diego Gimenez (Burgos, Spain) by 0.26 seconds in the 100-yard breaststroke. Even then, the Mocs acquitted themselves well, with Rojas finishing third and Nguyen finishing fourth, both within half a second of Stojmenovic.
Lupoli got the Mocs back in the win column in the 500-yard freestyle. His time of 4:43.43 gave the freshman his second individual win of the season, and first in that event after three runner-up finishes. He won by 2.75 seconds over Brandon Thomas of Indian River.
Indian River won the final two races held, with Shota Nakano four-tenths of a second ahead of Rowe in the 100-yard breaststroke, though Rowe’s 58.59 seconds was the best time by a Moccasin this year. The Pioneers also won the 400-yard freestyle relay at the end of Saturday’s meet.
Florida Southern will now prepare for the Sunshine State Conference Championships, which will be held at the Orlando YMCA, February 19-22.
