By Morgan Swem
The Florida Southern men’s swim team was recently ranked No. 9 by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America in the second national poll. The mocs have only competed once since the rankings were announced.
They dropped a duel meet against Florida State University. In that meet, three Mocs had NCAA provisional qualifying times. Marco Palacios and Luis Jasso both had individual wins as well. Palacios won the 100-backstroke and Jasso won the 200-breastroke. Palacios’ finishing time was 49.47 seconds which makes him one of three swimmers in the nation to have recorded a time this impressive in the 100-backstroke. Jasso finished the 200-breakstroke with a time of 2:01.38. He is one of only two swimmers to have that fast of a time. Palacios and Jasso were also just short of NCAA “B” times an other event as well.
Noah Franz was the third Moc to have a provisional qualifying time. He managed to qualify in two separate events; the 100- and the 200-freestyle.
The Mocs next competition will be on Dec. 16 in Clearwater. They will be a part of the 4-day University of Tampa Spartan Invitational.
The Florida Southern women’s swim team also moved up in the polls and had three girls make provisional qualifying times. The Florida Southern women’s swimming team has recently been moved up three spots in the College Swimming Coaches Association of America national poll. The Lady Mocs moved up to No. 22 in the poll. The only Sunshine State Conference team that is ahead of them is Nova Southeastern.
The Lady Mocs have only competed once since the first set of standings came out. They competed in a quad meet at Florida Gulf Coast University where they swam against FGCU and Florida State, bothof which participate in NCAA Division I competition. They also competed against West Florida, who is currently ranked No. 3 in Division II.
In the quad meet, the lady mocs had three swimmers break NCAA provisional qualifying times. Jacinda Whittenburg finished the 400- individual medley with a time of 4:25.72. Her time is currently a new school record and the best in the country.
Krystal Karas is the first moccasin to get a NCAA “B” in the 50—freestyle. Her finishing time was 23.98 seconds.
Payton Breault finished the 200-freestyle at 1:52.80, which not only is a provisional time, but also puts her time at No. 5 on the national Division II times list.
Breault also has another top 10 time spot in the 200-backstroke. She finished with a time that was only 0.69 seconds away from having another provisional qualifying time.
Haley DeGrace also narrowly missed a NCAA provisional qualifying time. She was only 0.62 seconds away from the time in the 100-breaststroke. In her 200-breaststroke she was 1.31 seconds away from making a provisional time.
Both DeGrace and Whittenburg were ranked in the top 20 spots on the Division II times list for both breaststroke races.
The Lady Mocs will return to action in their next competition on Dec. 16 in Clearwater. Like the boys, they will take part in the 4-day University of Tampa Spartan Invitational.
