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By Dan D’Addona.
Coming into the 50-yard freestyle finals, Florida’s Caeleb Dressel had swimming fans asking two questions: Could he break his own world record? And could he possibly go faster than 18 seconds?
The answer to both was: No — at least the short answer.
Dressel won the 50 in 18.23, three hundredths of a second off his NCAA and American record set last year.
The long answer is a little more complex and impressive. Dressel didn’t break 18 seconds, or his record, but the Florida junior turned in three stellar swims, breaking the pool record three times in one day — including twice in one hour.
“He is just on another level, that guy,” said Florida teammate Mark Szaranek, who tied Texas senior Will Licon to win the 200 IM (1:40.67). “To go 18.2 time after time is amazing.”
Dressel swam an 18.38 in the 50 freestyle preliminaries, then went 18.23 to lead off the 200 freestyle relay to a second-place finish (1:14.88). In the 50 freestyle final, Dressel identically matched his 18.23 from the relay to three-peat as NCAA champion.
So while, he wasn’t the fastest ever at the NCAA Division I championships in Indianapolis on Thursday, he was nearly the fastest three times in one day. Plus his two finals times — tied for the second-fastest ever behind his own mark — came just an hour apart.
It is the third time he has been at 18.23, the first at last year’s SEC Championships, leading up to his world record of 18.20 to win the NCAA title.
“It has been pretty consistent,” Dressel said. “This is my third year doing NCAAs. You get used to going back-to-back-to-back. I was alright with the time. There are still a lot of areas to improve on it. It is always nice to go a personal best, but it is all about having that perfect race, nailing some certain areas I need to get better at — second breakout and being clean off my dive, and I completely missed my finish. It was a good swim, don’t get me wrong, just being picky. That’s part of the sport.”
And part of what makes Dressel on another level, despite a field where Ryan Held (18.60), Joseph Schooling (18.79), Michael Chadwick (18.97) and Zach Apple (18.97) all went faster than 19 seconds in the final.
“It’s great. You almost had eight guys under 19 in the final. It is getting ridiculous fast,” Dressel said.
And in an event like the 50 freestyle, every little detail could mean a couple hundredths of a second.
“I am one less stroke than I was last year. I was at nine and I am at eight. That is more power that you have to get used to, how your body responds,” Dressel said. “You have to nit pick and see what works best for you — and do it in practice.”
It is that kind of nitpicking that helped Dressel reach the Olympics in Rio.
“I got a lot of wisdom out of it. It is such a big meet. It doesn’t make these meets seem smaller, it gives you a bit more confidence at how to handle adversity, and being up on that podium — that meet is such a big scale it prepares you for meets like this,” he said.
Being able to consistently perform near record pace is more impressive than doing it once. There are plenty of swimmers who have reached the pinnacle of a record-setting race, then don’t come near it again.
Dressel has been near in just about every swim for three years. That stunning consistency at an elite level is why Dressel is the greatest short-course sprinter of all time.
All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.
Fast and exciting!
Dressel’s threepeats ties him w/Tennessee’s Dave Edgar (1970-’72) and USC’s Joe Bottom (’75-’77) as race’s only threepeaters and nobody has four peated – yet!
Edgar’s pr was was 20.35 in ’71 and Bottom set an American/ NCAA record w/his 19.75.
I have a 1975 University of Tennessee Swimming Guide and it reports that Edgar went a 20.2 at the 1971 SEC Championships.
Dressel is consistently FAST!!
Mike Macchia
Ridiculous