GENEVA, OHIO â€" For Florida Southern to finish as the national runner-up two years in a row, the Moccasins needed a clutch performance from senior Robbie Swan on the final leg of the final relay in the final event of the 4-day NCAA Championships. Consider it a Swan song. One of the Mocs’ most decorated student-athletes in recent years pushed past two other swimmers at the end of the of the 400-yard freestyle relay to give FSC a 2½-point margin over Wayne State (MI) for another runner-up finish at the National Finals.
Going into Saturday’s action, Drury (MO) was well on its way to a 10th consecutive national championship, but Florida Southern and Wayne State were in a heated race for second. The Mocs led the Warriors by 2½ points at the start of the day and wound up with the same margin at the end. It only happened though after the Mocs finished two spots ahead of the Warriors in the championship finals of the 400-freestyle relay, and even then, they had to come from behind to do it.
The group of junior Allan Gutierrez (San Pedro Sula, Honduras), junior Luis Rojas (Caracas, Venezuela), sophomore Jesus Marin (Cumana, Venezuela), and Swan (Snellville, Ga.) had reached the finals with a near-school record time of 2:56.86 that was the best for any school in the prelims. They fell a little short of that time Saturday night but were still fast enough to place third in the finals.
Trailing by a point-and-a-half, Florida Southern needed to beat Wayne State to re-claim second place in the overall standings. It couldn’t have been much closer. With one leg remaining, the Moccasins were running sixth and the Warriors were fourth. Bridgeport was eventually disqualified, but Swan’s 43.68-second, 100-yard sprint sent him and Florida Southern ahead of both Wayne State and Wingate for a final relay time of 2:57.33. That was 0.11 seconds ahead of Wingate, and 0.31 seconds faster than Wayne State. It also gave the Mocs 32 points in the 400-freestyle relay, while the Warriors scored 28. The time posted by Swan on his leg of the relay was also faster than the record he set in the 100-yard freestyle at last year’s NCAA Championships.
Again the distance swimmers made their mark early as sophomore Juan Tolosa (Guipuzcoa, Spain) placed third in the 1,650-yard freestyle and blew away the school record in the process. His time of 15:21.96 broke his own mark, which he had set at last year’s NCAA Finals, by almost 10 seconds. Earlier in the meet, Tolosa had already set another Florida Southern record with his time in 1,000-freestyle, and freshman Franco Lupoli (Weston, Fla.) set one in the 500 on Friday. Winning the 1,650 was West Chester freshman Victor Polyakov, who completed a sweep with previous wins in the 200, 500, and 1,000.
Sophomore Raul Garrastazu (Dorado, P.R.) also scored for Florida Southern in the 1,650 with a 16th-place finish. He had a season-best time of 15:48.01 to help expand the Moccasins’ lead for second place from 2½ points over Wayne State (FL) to 19½.
Swan put the Moccasins in even better shape in the 100-yard freestyle. After reaching the finals with a 7th-place finish in the prelims, Swan was even better in the finals, placing third. That was one spot higher than he finished in 2013, and his time of 44.16 seconds was four .04 seconds away from the school record he set in last year’s National Finals. Junior Allan Gutierrez (San Pedro Sula, Honduras) was sixth in the consolation finals, giving Florida Southern a total of 19 points in the 100-freestyle, five more than Wayne State scored.
By the time the evening’s third event, the 200-backstroke, finished, the Moccasins had another third-place swimmer in junior Luis Rojas (Caracas, Venezuela), and senior Thomas Nguyen (Snellville, Ga.) finished eighth. Wayne State had two of its swimmers in the consolation race, but was out-scored by Rojas and Nguyen, 27-16. Both Moccasin swimmers had their top times of the season in the prelims, and for Rojas, it was another top-five finish after he placed fourth in 2013.
Wayne State was able to gain some ground in the 200-yard breaststroke where the Warriors placed fourth and eighth, though Florida Southern junior Spencer Rowe (Chattanooga, Tenn.) won the consolation race in 1:58.45. That was 0.44 seconds off the school record he set on February 22 at the Sunshine State Conference Championships. More importantly, it allowed the Mocs to stay 18½ points ahead of Wayne State, a crucial margin since the Warriors had two divers competing right after that on the 3-meter board.
In that competition, Wayne State divers placed second and 14th, giving the Warriors 20 additional points the Moccasins couldn’t match. With only a point-and-a-half separating the two schools, it set up a final-event battle for the national runner-up finish, with the 400-yard freestyle relay teams to decide it.
Drury won the national title with 569½ points, while Florida Southern scored 361. After Wayne State with 358½, were Queens (NC) with 285, and Bridgeport with 258½ to complete the top-five.
