Caeleb Dressel once again proved he can bring his best no matter what the situation.
It didn’t matter that finals were in the morning, or that he had a double within a half hour. Or that there haven’t been many races at all in 2021, let alone against world class competition.
But all of those factors were in play on Friday during the first full finals session of the 2021 TYR Pro Swim Series Mission Viejo stop, the next step on the road to the Olympic trials.
Caeleb Dressel used a late surge to top Andrew Seliskar in the 200 free, winning in 1:47.57. He ran down Andrew Seliskar (1:47.69) on the final 50. Dressel turned fifth at the 100 (52.7), behind Seliskar (51.9) and split a 27.1 on the third 50 to flip second (1:19.9) behind 2018 national champ Seliskar (1:19.6). Dressel then came home in a 27.6 to win the race.
“I thought I made a good change from the prelims, where I didn’t attack the 100 as well. In the 200, it is really easy to let guys flip first at the 150 and say you have a faster 50 split coming home. That is where I get in trouble,” Dressel said. “No one cares if you are fourth and come in at 26 or 27, so I wanted to get to the 150 mark with a chance to win the race, and I thought I did a good job of that. Seliskar certainly took me there. I had a really good battle with him and it was really fun.”
Then, just a half hour later, Dressel cruised to victory in the 100 butterfly, winning in 51.61.
“The 100 fly, I am not very pleased with. I thought I held technique pretty well. It didn’t hurt that bad, which is a sign that I should have made it hurt worse and gone faster,” Dressel said. “It is not a good thing if the race doesn’t hurt. I could have done a better job in the fly. I am not worried about anything. I am my own worst critic, but there is definitely room for improvement. I am in the exact same spot where I was last year before COVID-19 hit. It is kind of funny how the sport works.”
Dressel will use this as a lesson moving forward the same way he remembers everything and treats it like a lesson, especially as he heads toward the Olympic trials.
He learned several lessons from trials over the years as well.
“Well 2012 was a disaster. I was way too worked up. I was just a kid at 15 years old. I don’t think a really had a chance at making the team either way, but I worked myself up way too much. I should not have been that nervous. I still learned a lot as the meet went on. I got better and better. I went from DFL to only getting second-to-last. That is improvement right there,” Caeleb Dressel said. “I took that experience into 2016. I am excited for this year. Each trials you learn something and move forward with it.”
This year, Dressel has proven the 200 free could be a strong event at trials, despite it coming on the heels of his sprinting events. He has swam the event long enough to know that he still has a shot, and not just for a relay spot.
“I would not want to give up an opportunity to have another swim at the Olympics and representing the U.S. in the 200 free. I don’t want to say I am promising anything. We are going to get the feet wet in trials, the same thing I did in 2017 world trials. That was my first swim and I made the 200 free, at least the relay, before I made anything else. I didn’t swim it at worlds, but we will feel out the meet,” Dressel said. “We will talk and figure out what our concrete plan will be.”
This meet also brought another learning experience for Dressel with prelims in the evening and finals the following morning, mirroring the Olympic schedule.
“It was very interesting. There is a difference in the energy that prelims puts off and the energy that finals puts off. There are a lot of guys revved up and ready to go even though it was prelims. When the sun starts setting, you have a finals mindset. It was interesting trying not to be too much of a hero (during prelims) and going for that race strategy, trying to be at about 99% and still making the final,” Caeleb Dressel said. “ I was cutting it close on a couple events — but it was interesting walking up and eating breakfast and getting into finals mode. We have to flip that and do it in the morning. It wasn’t as weird as I thought it was going to be. Finals are finals. It doesn’t matter what time of day they are, you have people laying down some fast times. It will be interesting, but I think it will work out a lot better than what people were thinking it would be.”
