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Florida’s Caeleb Dressel unleashed the second 18.2 in history as he nearly beat his NCAA, American record in the men’s 50-yard free at the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Championships.
Dressel, who earlier already clocked an 18.32 on relay duty, blasted an 18.29 in prelims. That’s just off his 18.23 record as the fastest 50 free ever.
Dressel wins the 50-free prelims with an 18.29 — nearly breaks his own American & U.S. Open Records. #GoGators pic.twitter.com/kO9dAdfFTe
— Gator Swimming (@GatorsSwimDv) March 24, 2016
Dressel now has the top four performances of all time, all within the time frame of a month and a half. He started out with an 18.39 during prelims at the Southeastern Conference Championships last month, and has now has the only four sub-18.40 times in history.
All Time Top 10 50 Free Performances:
1 18.23 Caeleb Dressel, Florida, Columbia 2/17/16
2 18.29p Caeleb Dressel Florida Atlanta 3/24/16
3 18.32r Caeleb Dressel, Florida, Atlanta, 3/24/16
4 18.39p Caeleb Dressel, Florida, Columbia, 2/17/16
5 18.47r Cesar Cielo Auburn Federal Way, Wash. 3/27/08
6 18.52 Cesar Cielo Auburn Federal Way, Wash. 3/27/08
6 18.52 Matt Targett Auburn Auburn, Ala., 2/19/09
8 18.63 Vlad Morozov USC 3/28/13
9 18.64 Kristian Gkolomeev Alabama 2/18/15
10 18.66 Nathan Adrian California Minneapolis 3/24/11
Dressel, who won the 50 free last year in 18.67, is looking to join a long list of multiple 50 free winners. As a sophomore this year, a win by Dressel would keep him on the path to making history as no one has ever accomplished a career sweep of the event.
Multiple 50 Free Winners:
3 – Joe Bottom, Southern California
3 – Fred Bousquet, Auburn
3 – David Edgar, Tennessee
2 – Nathan Adrian, California
2 – Robert Anderson, Stanford
2 – Charles Barker, Michigan
2 – Matt Biondi, California
2 – John Bryant, Dartmouth
2 – Cesar Cielo, Auburn
2 – Richard Cleveland, Ohio State
2 – Andrew Coan, Tennessee
2 – Charles Flachmann, Illinois
2 – Steven Jackman, Minnesota
2 – Tom Jager, UCLA
2 – Ed Kirar, Michigan
2 – Brent Lang, Michigan
2 – Richard Weinberg, Michigan
2 – Zac Zorn, UCLA
Several other swimmers will attempt to dethrone Dressel. NC State’s Simonas Bilis, who moved to ninth all time with an 18.76 relay leadoff earlier in the morning, posted an 18.79 for the second seed in the individual event.
Michigan’s Paul Powers also cleared 19 with an 18.99 for the third seed. He is ranked 14th all time with an 18.85 from Big Tens last month.
NC State’s Ryan Held (19.01), Missouri’s Michael Chadwick (19.06), Georgia’s Michael Trice (19.16) and Texas’ John Murray (19.17) also safely made it into finals.
Auburn’s Peter Holoda, Texas’ Brett Ringgold and Alabama’s Kristian Gkolomeev set up a threeway swimoff for eighth with 19.18s.
Gkolomeev, the 2014 50 free victor alongside Brad Tandy in a tie, won the swimoff in 19.04. Ringgold (19.09) and Holoda (19.13) wound up moving to the B final.
=== Preliminaries ===
1 Dressel, Caeleb SO Florida 18.23 18.29C
r:+0.66 8.82 18.29 (9.47)
2 Bilis, Simonas SR NC State 18.94 18.79P
r:+0.67 9.01 18.79 (9.78)
3 Powers, Paul SO Michigan 18.85 18.99
r:+0.63 9.10 18.99 (9.89)
4 Held, Ryan SO NC State 18.92 19.01
r:+0.65 9.15 19.01 (9.86)
5 Chadwick, Michael JR Missouri 19.17 19.06
r:+0.69 9.30 19.06 (9.76)
6 Trice, Michael SR Georgia 19.31 19.16
r:+0.69 9.14 19.16 (10.02)
7 Murray, John SR Texas 19.26 19.17
r:+0.65 9.17 19.17 (10.00)
8 Holoda, Peter SO Auburn 19.17 19.18
r:+0.65 9.43 19.18 (9.75)
8 Ringgold, Brett SO Texas 19.38 19.18
r:+0.71 9.36 19.18 (9.82)
8 Gkolomeev, Kristian JR Alabama 19.21 19.18
r:+0.70 9.43 19.18 (9.75)
Swim-Off Required ----------------------------------------------
11 Virva, Dillon SR UNLV 19.09 19.25
r:+0.62 9.22 19.25 (10.03)
12 Khalafalla, Ali SO Indiana 19.27 19.28
r:+0.69 9.38 19.28 (9.90)
13 Sorenson, Payton SO BYU 19.23 19.40
r:+0.76 9.45 19.40 (9.95)
14 Perry, Sam SO Stanford 19.30 19.41
r:+0.60 9.38 19.41 (10.03)
15 Schiellerup, Andreas JR NC State 19.52 19.42
r:+0.69 9.35 19.42 (10.07)
16 Darmody, Kyle JR Auburn 19.44 19.48
r:+0.67 9.46 19.48 (10.02)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
17 Kaliszak, Lucas SO Alabama 19.73 19.53
r:+0.65 9.39 19.53 (10.14)
17 Lynch, Justin SO California 19.41 19.53
r:+0.66 9.51 19.53 (10.02)
Swim-Off Required ----------------------------------------------
19 Apple, Zach FR Auburn 19.48 19.54
r:+0.66 9.47 19.54 (10.07)
20 Plaschka, Justin SO Notre Dame 19.61 19.56
r:+0.61 9.35 19.56 (10.21)
20 Jackson, Tate FR Texas 19.25 19.56
r:+0.77 9.57 19.56 (9.99)
22 Decoursey, Kyle FR Tennessee 19.43 19.59
r:+0.73 9.71 19.59 (9.88)
22 Ellis, Matt SR Texas 19.58 19.59
r:+0.69 9.59 19.59 (10.00)
22 Main, Corey SR Florida 19.36 19.59
r:+0.62 9.43 19.59 (10.16)
25 Duderstadt, Michael JR Auburn 19.71 19.60
r:+0.64 9.34 19.60 (10.26)
25 Lewis, Sam SR UNC 19.49 19.60
r:+0.57 9.36 19.60 (10.24)
25 Mendes, Arthur SR Auburn 19.88 19.60
r:+0.63 9.46 19.60 (10.14)
28 Peek, James JR Duke 19.54 19.61
r:+0.66 9.32 19.61 (10.29)
29 Clifton, Cannon JR Wisconsin 19.57 19.64
r:+0.67 9.45 19.64 (10.19)
30 Carroll, Trevor JR Louisville 19.57 19.67
r:+0.69 9.52 19.67 (10.15)
31 Walsh, Brett SR Alabama 19.61 19.71
r:+0.62 9.40 19.71 (10.31)
32 Bohus, Richard JR Arizona St 19.74 19.72
r:+0.68 9.63 19.72 (10.09)
33 Bams, Laurent SO Alabama 19.56 19.74
r:+0.68 9.61 19.74 (10.13)
34 Lile, Nathan SR Gardner-Webb 19.49 19.78
r:+0.69 9.59 19.78 (10.19)
35 Hu-Van Wright, En-wei JR Princeton 19.37 19.80
r:+0.69 9.61 19.80 (10.19)
36 Tavcar, Anze JR Indiana 19.62 19.87
r:+0.74 9.75 19.87 (10.12)
36 Linge, Alex SR LSU 19.78 19.87
r:+0.71 9.69 19.87 (10.18)
38 Park, Patrick SO Arizona St 19.90 19.88
r:+0.69 9.57 19.88 (10.31)
39 Conaton, Patrick SO Stanford 19.83 19.91
r:+0.65 9.82 19.91 (10.09)
40 Duskinas, Tadas JR Arizona St 19.97 19.92
r:+0.73 9.68 19.92 (10.24)
41 Robrock, Kyle JR Denver 19.53 19.94
r:+0.69 9.50 19.94 (10.44)
42 Hammoud, Youssef SR GT 19.85 20.01
r:+0.75 9.72 20.01 (10.29)
43 Coan, Kyle SO California 20.16 20.10
r:+0.63 9.58 20.10 (10.52)
44 Schultz, Eric SR Penn 19.68 20.11
r:+0.68 9.52 20.11 (10.59)
45 Marsh, Andrew SR WVU 19.89 20.18
r:+0.66 9.72 20.18 (10.46)
46 Becker, Bowen FR Minnesota 19.53 20.19
r:+0.59 9.83 20.19 (10.36)
47 Knox, Jonathan SO USC 19.92 20.46
r:+0.68 9.83 20.46 (10.63)
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Can’t wait to get to the meet tonight!!!!!!
I just saw this online! This is in Prelims!! I am going to predict under 18.23 in finals.
Needs some improvements to go under 18. Can he swim a 50 meter long course event?
His long course time is 21.53
Great kid… Phenom… And humble
Wow, go Caeleb!
Humm…can he win at Rio?
Tom Lindsay sub 18.2 in the final!?
That’s just insane!
“I could do that.” ?
18.20 is it.
Amazing!!!!!
Crazy fast!
Me 37
Alice O’Leary McClenahan and Betsy Bacher Mulvehill…..
Keysha Reese Stapley Kimberly Oakes Cesario
Simon-Pierre Bélanger
Ivana Baraba
I saw that yesterday pretty cool
Chng Chern Xiang