ORLANDO â€" With only two events held on the first day of the Sunshine State Conference Championships, the Florida Southern men’s swimming team has already won its first two events of the meet, sophomore Juan Tolosa set a new school record in one of them, and freshman Franco Lupoli already has one gold and one silver medal. However, Nova Southeastern held a 4-point lead over the Moccasins in the team standings, and Tampa was only 12 points behind in third place.

Florida Southern earned its first victory when Tolosa (Guipuzcoa, Spain) captured the 1,000-yard freestyle in a time of 9:13.43. That broke his own school record, which he set at last year’s SSC Championships, by 0.14 seconds â€" and he barely finished ahead of another Moccasin who came close to that record himself. Lupoli (Weston, Fla.) was second in the 1,000-freestyle with a career-best time of 9:14.46, with the rest of the field at least eight seconds behind him. Both were NCAA “B” qualifying times, and Tolosa got the win after finishing second in 2013.

Lupoli was also part of the winning 800-yard freestyle relay team, which featured juniors Luis Rojas (Caracas, Venezuela) and Allan Gutierrez (San Pedro Sula, Honduras), and sophomore Jesus Marin (Cumana, Venzuela). It was the Moccasins’ third straight SSC title in that event, and their time of 6:34.22 was just 0.35 seconds ahead of second-place Tampa. The Mocs hit an NCAA “B” time, and were only 1.17 seconds away from an “A” standard.

Florida Southern also won the consolation finals of the 800-freestyle relay, with freshman Alec Wathen (Sunrise, Fla.), junior Dylan Lake (Los Alamos, N.M.), sophomore Raul Garrastazu (Dorado, P.R.), and Tolosa swimming the race in 6:40.53. That too was an NCAA “B” time, and it was faster than Florida Tech, Saint Leo, or Rollins swam in the main finals.

Day two of the SSC Championships begins with prelims Thursday morning in the 500-freestyle, 200-IM, and the 50-freestyle. The finals in all three events are Thursday night, in addition to the 200-freestyle relay and the 400-medley relay.