ORLANDO â€" Florida Southern took what it hopes is the next step to winning a second straight conference men’s swimming title when sophomore Raul Garrastazu led a run of Moccasin swimmers in the 500-yard freestyle, and later helped them to a second-place finish in the 400-yard medley relay. Those points were enough to give Florida Southern first place in the overall team standings halfway through the Sunshine State Conference Championships.

With Nova Southeastern leading Florida Southern by only four points at the start of Thursday’s competition, and Tampa just 12 points out of first place, the lead for the SSC title was up for grabs right from the outset, and the Mocs ended up 48 in front by the end of the night. The Spartans came out strong with wins in both the championship and consolation finals of the 200-yard freestyle relay. In that race, both Tampa and Saint Leo broke the previous meet record, and Florida Southern’s team of senior Robbie Swan (Snellville, Ga.), senior Zach Edwards (Jacksonville, Fla.), junior Allan Gutierrez (San Pedro Sula, Honduras), and freshman Diego Gimenez (Burgos, Spain) were only five one-hundredths of a second off that mark too. The race was close enough that the Mocs were only 0.62 seconds out of first, and their own NCAA “B” qualifying time of 1:20.88 was a new school record.

Florida Southern took control of the meet though in the next event, the 500-freestyle, where Garrastazu (Dorado, P.R.), sophomore Juan Tolosa (Guipuzcoa, Spain), freshman Franco Lupoli (Weston, Fla.), and sophomore Jesus Marin (Cumana, Venezuela) claimed four of the top five spots. Garrastazu not only captured the gold medal, he broke Tolosa’s old school record in the event with a mark of 4:27.68. That was about half a second faster than Tolosa swam at last year’s national finals, but Tolosa also bettered that time on Thursday with a 4:27.82 â€" a difference of only 0.14 seconds behind Garrastazu. Lupoli ended up fourth with his best time of the season, Marin was fifth, and each of them had NCAA “B” times as well.

The Moccasins didn’t score as many points in the 200-yard IM, but they still had three of the top four and four of the top seven swimmers in that event, led by junior Luis Rojas (Caracas, Venezuela). Rojas clocked in at 1:50.13, an NCAA “B” time, and was followed by junior Spencer Rowe (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and junior Dylan Lake (Los Alamos, N.M.) in third and fourth. They each had NCAA provisional times too. Redshirt freshman Alec Wathen (Sunrise, Fla.) placed seventh.

Florida Southern got another runner-up finish in the next event, the 50-yard freestyle, as Swan had the Mocs’ best time of the season (20.44 seconds), but was still half a second behind Saint Leo’s Matheus Assis, who became the first SSC swimmer to ever break the 20-second mark in that event. Edwards also reached the finals of the 50-freestyle, and along with Swan, hit an NCAA “B” standard in the race. Gutierrez and Gimenez did the same in the consolation finals, with Gutierrez taking first in that particular race.

In the last event of the night, Tampa established another meet record in the 400-yard medley relay, while Florida Southern was second. The Moccasins shattered their previous best time of the season by more than eight seconds, with senior Thomas Nguyen (Snellville, Ga.) taking the leadoff position, followed by Rowe, Garrastazu, and Swan. The Mocs’ second team of Gimenez, Edwards, sophomore Edson Lima (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Rojas won the consolation final in a time that would have been third overall.

Those points gave Florida Southern a 367-319 lead over Tampa, and a 77-point lead over Nova Southeastern, which slipped to third place.

Day three of the SSC Championships begins with prelims at 10 a.m. Friday, and concludes at 6 p.m. with finals in the 200-medley relay, 400-IM, 100-butterfly, 200-freestyle, 100-breaststroke, and 100-backstroke.