ORLANDO, FL – With silver medals from one individual and one relay team, and five of the top 10 swimmers in the 200-individual medley, Florida Southern ended the first day of the 2017 Sunshine State Conference Swimming Championships in second place, trailing only Nova Southeastern.
The Moccasins scored 172 points Thursday night to put themselves 26 behind Nova Southeastern, even though the Sharks won three of the four events held. Florida Tech was third with 141 points and won the only race Nova didn't. Tampa was only one point behind the Panthers with 140, Saint Leo was fifth with 38 points, and Rollins was sixth with 34.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Nova Southeastern won the first individual title of the meet when Franco Lupoli captured the 1,000-freestyle in 9:08.62, which put him 6.2 seconds ahead of teammate Blake Woodrow. Florida Southern sophomore Luca Planinc was fourth with a season-best time of 9:20.23, shaving more than nine seconds off his previous best and strengthening his case for a spot in the national finals. Freshman Jonathan Sawyer, sophomore Charles Gotsch and sophomore Esteban Velasquez also scored for the Mocs in the 1,000-free.
- Though Nova Southeastern won the next event too, the 200-IM, Florida Southern had both the silver and bronze medalists with sophomore Matthew Holmes (1:48.33) and senior Antonio Nunez-Alvarez (1:49.27). Both of those were NCAA provisional qualifying times, with Holmes doing it for the second time this year and Nunez-Alvarez doing it for the first. The Mocs also had junior Luka Matacin fourth with another NCAA "B" time of 1:49.80. Nova senior Marco Aldabe won the race in 1:47.79.
- Not only did Florida Southern have three of the top four swimmers in the championship finals of the 200-IM, it also had two of the top three in the consolation finals where junior Luis Jasso and senior Evan Coleman gave the Moccasins 15 more points. Jasso won that race with an NCAA "B" time of 1:50.95.
- In the 50-freestyle, Florida Tech senior Nir Barnes successfully defended his title by setting a new conference championship record with a winning time of 19.91 seconds. He was one-tenth of a second faster than teammate Victor Rocha Furtado. Florida Southern had junior Noah Franz and senior Diego Gimenez place fifth and sixth respectively, one one-hundredth of a second apart, and the Mocs also had three swimmers reach the consolation finals of the 50-free. Along with Franz and Gimenez, freshman Talor Hamilton, sophomore Nico Campbell and senior Marco Palacios all had NCAA provisional qualifying times in the 50.
- Florida Southern picked up its second silver medal of the night by placing second in the 200-medley relay. Nova Southeastern had a winning time of 1:29.22, which was 1.40 seconds faster than the Moccasins' team of Palacios, Sean Kim, Gimenez and Campbell. It was still the Mocs' best time of the season and another NCAA provisional time.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
- Sawyer, who had been third on the team times list in the 1,000-free, moved up to second after he knocked 12 seconds off his seed time with a mark of 9:38.37.
- Matacin moved up from fifth to third on the times list in the 200-IM as one of the three Moccasins who had NCAA provisional times in that event. Sean Kim, who swam the individual medley only once all season prior to Thursday, barely missed qualifying for the consolation finals. He was 0.34 seconds away from the time needed.
- Gimenez had been the only Moccasin to have an NCAA "B" time in the 50-free prior to Thursday when four other Moccasins joined him on that list.
UP NEXT:
- The SSC Championships continue Friday with prelims at 10 a.m. and finals in five events at 6 p.m.
