The Emory University Swimming and Diving teams split the opening meet of the 2014 portion of their campaign, with the top-ranked Emory women defeating Florida Southern College 195-67, and the third-ranked Emory men suffering a 165-97 loss to the Moccasins. Both Florida Southern squads are currently ranked fourth among NCAA Division II teams.
The Emory women now stand at 3-2 for the season, while the men dropped to 2-3. Meanwhile, the Florida Southern women dropped to 4-1, while the men improved to 5-0.
Sophomore Andrew Wilson paced the Emory men in Lakeland, Florida on Friday afternoon, winning a pair of events with NCAA ‘B’ cut times. Wilson swam to a victory in the 100-yard breaststroke with a mark of 57.53 seconds, and followed with a win in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:06.57. Emory senior Ross Spock also registered a ‘B’ cut time, finishing second in the 100-yard backstroke with a mark of 51.43 seconds.
The Emory women combined to win 11 of the 14 events on Friday, led by three individual victories from McKenna Newsum-Schoenberg. The junior won the 200-yard butterfly in a ‘B’ cut time 2:07.81, in addition to victories in the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:21.61) and 500-yard freestyle (5:08.05). Freshman Annelise Kowalsky added a pair of event victories, winning both the 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.23) and 200-yard individual medley (2:10.13).
The Eagles’ final ‘B’ cut time of the meet came from sophomore Elizabeth Aronoff, who notched a time of 2:24.07 in the 200-yard breaststroke. Other individual first-place finishes for the Eagles came from freshman Marissa Bergh in the 200-yard freestyle (1:55.54), freshman Marcela Sanchez-Aizcorbe in the 100-yard butterfly (59.91 seconds), and junior Dana Holt and freshman Kristine Rosenberger, who each tied for first in the 50-yard freestyle (25.01 seconds).
The Emory women also swept the two relays on Friday, opening the meet with a win from sophomore Ellie Thompson, Kowalsky, Rosenberger and junior Nancy Larson in the 200-yard medley relay (1:46.19) and closing it with a victory in the 200-yard freestyle from senior Jennifer Pak, sophomore MacKenzie Brosnahan, Rosenberger and Holt (1:40.16).
Next up for the Eagles will be a meet against Georgia Tech, as the NCAA Division I program will make the short trip from Midtown to take on Emory at the Woodruff Physical Education Center on Saturday, January 18th at 11:00 AM. The Eagles will also hold their annual ‘Senior Day’ ceremony prior to the start of the meet, honoring the squad’s 20 members scheduled to graduate in May.
Press release courtesy of Emory Athletics.
Six Different Moccasins Post Individual Wins as Florida Southern Downs Emory
LAKELAND – Six different Moccasin swimmers won individual races Friday, with three of them winning at least twice, and both relay races were also won by Florida Southern in its 165-97 win over Emory University, the nation’s third-ranked team in Division III. The win improves the 4th-ranked Moccasins to 5-0 in dual meets this season and extends their school-record winning streak to nine.
Leading the victory parade against Emory (2-3) were junior Luis Rojas (Caracas, Venezuela), who won three events, and sophomore Raul Garrastazu (Dorado, P.R.) and junior Allan Gutierrez (San Pedro Sula, Honduras), who each won two. Sophomore Juan Tolosa (Guipuzcoa, Spain), senior Thomas Nguyen (Snellville, Ga.) and senior Robbie Swan (Snellville, Ga.) all picked up one individual win, and junior Jesus Marin (Cumana, Venezuela), had three runner-up finishes.
After the 200-yard medley relay team started the meet with a win by just over half a second against the Eagles’ top team, the Mocs got their first individual win from Tolosa, who beat Garrastazu by a little less than two seconds in the 1,000-yard freestyle.
The Moccasins followed their first 1-2 finish of the day with a 1-2-3 showing in the 200-yard freestyle, won by Rojas in an NCAA “B” time of 1:41.51. Right behind him were Marin and redshirt freshman Alec Wathen (Sunrise, Fla.).
The Mocs then increased their lead even further in the 100-yard backstroke where they had four of the five point positions, led by Nguyen’s first 100-yard victory of the season. Freshman Diego Gimenez (Burgos, Spain) was third, followed by freshman Evan Coleman (Yarmouth, Maine) and sophomore Edson Lima (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
Garrastazu notched his first win of the day in the 200-yard butterfly, winning by more than three seconds over Emory’s Hayden Baker. Gutierrez and Swan were then first and second respectively in the 50-yard freestyle, before Swan, Marin, and Gimenez took the first three spots in the 100-yard freestyle.
The Moccasins added another first- and second-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke where Rojas and Nguyen were the top swimmers, and Garrastazu added his second win of the day in the 500-yard freestyle. It was Garrastazu’s first multi-win meet of the season, though he won three events last year in a meet against Bridgeport.
Florida Southern finished things off with a 100-yard butterfly win by Gutierrez, a 200-yard IM victory by Rojas, and a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay that featured both of those swimmers.
Florida Southern will compete again on Saturday in its final home meet of the season, with the 4th-ranked Moccasins taking on #14 Nova Southeastern at 2 p.m.
Press release courtesy of Florida Southern College.
