Two weeks ago, after 13 Florida swimmers qualified for the NCAA Championships, UF swimming coach Gregg Troy said his team would need to be at its best in Atlanta.
Fast forward through the first two days of the NCAA meet and the No. 3-ranked Gators have already broken four school records.
“A lot of it relates to what kind of training you do in the fall,” Troy said in a release. “We’ve got a good group of upperclassmen who have been around and know what to expect. These guys did a good job in the fall and it’s good to see that work paying off this time of the year.”
The best performance from the Gators thus far came from sophomore Caeleb Dressel in the 50-yard freestyle on Thursday night. The sophomore improved on his previous time, setting an American, NCAA and world record by finishing in 18.20 seconds.
It was Dressel’s second-straight national championship in the 50.
“It felt pretty good racing,” Dressel said in a release. “The NCAAs are always fun because you’re with the best of the best and it’s always a pleasure.”
The Gators also received a record-breaking performance from junior Mitch D'Arrigo in the 500-yard freestyle. D’Arrigo, who was part of Florida’s school record-breaking performance in Wednesday night’s 800-yard freestyle relay, swam a time of 4:09.98 seconds in the 500. His performance was good enough for second place, just 0.98 seconds slower than Texas’s Townley Haas.
“Mitch’s had a good week of competition,” Troy said. “We thought he was going to go fast, we just didn’t know how fast.”
Overall on Thursday, the Gators displayed consistency throughout all five swimming events. Along with the two podium-placed finishes, the Gators also accumulated three additional top-5 finishes, including a school-record breaking performance in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:16.21).
Meanwhile on the diving boards, freshman diver Samuel Smith experienced growing pains in his first day of NCAA championship competition. After being as high as seventh through the first two dives of the preliminary round, Smith eventually slid all the way down to 24th overall with a final score of 315.40 in the 1-meter dive, failing to qualify for the final round Thursday evening.
“I was excited with the way Sam started the contest today,” UF diving coach Dale Schultz said in a release. “I thought he looked a little tight on the last couple dives. It was exciting for him to be in such a great atmosphere and he may have pressed a little too hard.”
With the Gators set to compete in five of the seven events today, they find themselves still within striking distance of overall leader Texas.
While the Longhorns managed to extend their lead to 46 points over the Gators, Florida managed to move up to second on the overall leaderboard.
Two of the biggest opportunities for Florida to make up ground on Texas today will be in the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard medley relay. The Gators will have a team-high six swimmers competing in the 200-yard freestyle.
“We’re getting off to a good start and we’re looking forward to the rest of the week,” Dressel said.
Contact Sean Doty at sdoty@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @TheRealSeanDoty.
Caeleb Dressel touches the wall at the end of his leg of the 400 meter freestyle relay during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
