Florida Southern put on a show against Florida Tech and Keiser in an intrastate battle today in Florida.
Florida Southern Press Release
With six different swimmers winning individual races and two additional swimmers helping the Moccasins win one relay, the Florida Southern women's swimming team swept a double dual meet with Florida Tech and Keiser in their first home meet of the season. The Moccasins defeated the Panthers 317-166, and the first-year Seahawks team 365-66.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Moccasins (2-1) won the first three races of the day, which started when the 200-medley relay team of Rebeka Dics, Haley DeGrace, Krystal Karas and Britt Aubley tied their Florida Tech counter-parts to split the points. Madi Rowan and Peyton Breault then captured the first two individual races, the 1,000-freestyle and 200-freestyle to put the Mocs ahead.
After the Panthers (1-3) got a win from Dar Raz in the 100-backstroke, DeGrace and Kourtney Gavin gave Florida Southern two more wins in the 100-breaststroke and 200-butterfly.
Florida Tech's Lauren Suarez won the 50-freestyle, but Florida Southern won five of the last six individual races. Those five wins came from Dics in the 100-free, Breault in the 200-back, Jacinda Whittenburg in the 200-breast, Breault in the 500-free, and Whittenburg in the 200-IM.
Breault won all three of her individual events after going 2-for-2 at Tampa in the Mocs' previous meet. She was also on the Mocs' 200-freestyle relay team that finished second to Florida Tech Friday by 0.42 seconds.
In each of the events won by Whittenburg (the 200-breast and 200-IM), her closest competitor was another Florida Southern swimmer, and each time it was DeGrace. DeGrace also beat out the third-place swimmer from Florida Tech in both of those races by a nearly identical margin (3.24 seconds in the 200-breast, and 3.37 seconds in the 200-IM).
When DeGrace won the 100-breast, it was Whittenburg who was second, with the two Moccasins 0.46 seconds apart.
In addition to the 100-breast, 200-breast and 200-IM, Florida Southern also took the top two spots in the 200-free with Breault and Dics, and the 100-free with Dics and Karas. The Mocs actually had four of the top five in the 100-free, which included Aubley and Allison Greenwood.
After helping the Mocs win the 200-medley relay, Karas went on to claim three runner-up finishes in the 50-free, 100-free, and 100-fly.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
With five individual wins, Breault is more than halfway to her total from last year when she won eight.
Kyra Fraser had a runner-up finish in the 100-back after finishing as the Mocs' top swimmer in the 200-back last week at Tampa.
Rowan earned her first career win on Friday and finished third in the 200-fly where she was less than one-tenth of a second out of second.
Winning 11 of the 14 events held, and with four swimmers winning multiple individual races, Florida Southern took both ends of a double dual with Florida Tech and Keiser in its first home meet of the season. The Moccasins defeated the Panthers 321-162, and the Seahawks from Keiser 344-138.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Florida Southern (2-1) opened up Friday's meet with six straight wins and took 10 of the first 11 overall before Florida Tech won two of the last three.
A total of six Moccasins won at least one race, and Diego Gimenez provided the anchor for their victorious 200-medley relay team that got the day started. Also a part of that meet-opening win were Marco Palacios, Sean Kim and Noah Franz, all of whom would go on to win their first individual races a bit later.
Franz and Palacios were among the Moccasin swimmers who won two individual races Friday, but the first to put his name in the win column was Luka Planinc in the 1,000-freestyle. Planinc would then go on to win the second distance event of the meet, the 500-freestyle, giving him the first two wins of his college career.
After Planinc captured the 1,000-free, Franz and Palacios followed with their first wins of the day in 200-free and 100-back respectively. Kim and Antonio Nunez-Alvarez then made it six straight wins to start the meet for Florida Southern by finishing first in the 100-breaststroke and 200-butterfly.
Florida Tech took the top two positions in the 50-free, where Gimenez was the top Moccasin swimmer, but Florida Southern bettered that by going 1-2-3 in the 100-free behind Franz, Nico Campbell and Gimenez.
After the strong showing by the entire team in the 100-free, Planinc and Nunez-Alvarez would each post their second wins of the day in the 500-free and 200-IM respectively, and Luis Jasso would also win the 200-breast.
Jasso and Kim were first and second in both breaststroke races, though it was Kim in the earlier 100 and Jasso in the 200.
The Moccasins held three of the top four spots in the 100-breast with Kim, Jasso and Matthew Holmes in addition to claiming the 1-2-3 positions in the 100-free.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
Dating back to last year, Palacios has won both the 100- and 200-backstroke in four of the last five meets where he's competed in those two events. It's the eighth time in his career he's pulled off that same type of double victory.
There were four events Friday where the Moccasins finished first and third, and that third-place swimmer placed ahead of their closest competitor from Sunshine State Conference rival Florida Tech. Campbell did that in the 200-free, Talor Hamilton did it in the 100-back,Evan Coleman did so in the 200-back, and Holmes accomplished it in the 500-free.
Florida Tech Press Release
Facing some stiff competition in men's and women's defending Sunshine State Conference Champion Florida Southern and strong NAIA member Keiser, Florida Tech held its own Friday afternoon at The Nina B. Hollis Wellness Center Pool.
FIT fell on both sides to the Moccasins, with the men's team succumbing 321-162 and the women falling 317-166. However, the Panthers did earn victories against the Seahawks as the men earned a hard fought 249-233 win and the women pulled away by a 354-77 margin.
All together the Panthers racked up seven event wins on the day, beginning with a unique situation in the meet's first event, the women's 200 medley relay. The team of Dar Raz, Carter Juskevich, Rachel Barczyk and Lauren Suarez completed the race at the exact same time as the Florida Southern "A" team, giving both teams a win in 1:49.10.
Raz garnered her second event title of the day in her signature race, the 100 backstroke. The Israeli native flew down her lane, timing in at 59.76, more than two full seconds faster than the next quickest swimmer. Suarez also added a second win, completing the 50 free in 24.49.
Defending NCAA Division II Swimmer of the Week Victor Furtado got the men's team its first victory in the 50 free, making the final touch in 20.80. Not only did Furtado achieve an NCAA B cut time, the mark is the fifth fastest in the nation so far this season. Nir Barnea wasn't far behind in second at 21.29.
Furtado again tasted victory a few events later, winning the 100 fly in 49.97. The sophomore currently holds the fastest time in Division II in the event, registering a 48.73 last week in Boca Raton, Florida.
The Panthers wrapped up the meet with a pair of wins from both sides in the 200 free relay. The women's team of Suarez, Raz, Neta Saar and Bernie Murphy outpaced the Mocs' top squad with a time of 1:39.90. For the men, Barnea, Furtado, Nathan Hufnagel and Edward Ilako set a 1:23.53 for the win, the second quickest time in the event in Division II.
In other action, freshman Birgitt O'Connor grabbed second in the 1,000 free at 11:08.58, while Ferruccio Rossi finished runner up in the event on the men's side at 10:00.54. Rossi's brother, Emanuele placed second in the 200 free, making the final touch in 1:43.20.
Trista Phelps finished second in the 200 fly, narrowly clipping FSC's Madison Rowan with a time of 2:20.26. In addition to her win in the 100 back, Raz snagged a second place finish in the 200 back at 2:12.18, while Samantha Bischoff recorded a 5:25.84 in the 500 free for second. Finally, Yagoh Kubagawa got in on the fun with a runner up performance in the 200 IM, timing in at 1:56.79.
FIT returns to the pool on Nov. 4, opening the home portion of its schedule against Florida Atlantic at the Panther Aquatic Center.
