After winning its fifth-straight SEC title, No. 6 Florida is using the experience from its conference championship to get ready for the NCAA Championships, which start March 22 in Indianapolis.
“We’re pretty battle hardened,” coach Gregg Troy said. “We’re the only conference that has a five-day meet. You have to maintain the intensity for a very long time, so I think it prepares you for that.”
Heading into the SEC Championship, the Gators knew they would face stiff competition. The conference has three other top-10 teams — No. 5 Georgia, No. 7 Auburn and No. 10 Alabama. But Florida responded with a solid performance.
“The men competed well across the board — a total team effort,” Troy said. “Anytime you can win in this conference it’s tremendous. Very good performances from all the guys.”
Caeleb Dressel, who won SEC Male Swimmer of the Meet at the SEC Championships, took first place in every event he competed in. Dressel won the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard fly and the 100-yard freestyle. He also helped the Gators win the 200-yard medley relay, 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
“Caeleb was tremendous,” Troy said. “His consistency is amazing. He certainly is the hammer that makes the relays really go.”
Because he’s one of the most notable athletes on the swimming team, Dressel’s performance can sometimes overshadow his teammates. But the men’s team had solid performances across the board over the weekend.
“I think from a team standpoint, it’s a little unfortunate because we have three other guys who are really, really doing well,” Troy said. “Mark Szaranek and Jan Switkowski are competing (at) extremely high levels. Without their performances, (Dressel is) not even in position to do what he did in the relays.”
The Gators will need a complete team effort in preparing for the NCAA Championship. Despite coming off an impressive showing at the SEC Championship — which is a five-day event — the NCAA meet has challenges of its own.
“On the downside, the NCAA meet is you swim the same number of events in three days,” Troy said. “So the three days you do swim are a little more tiresome. So we have to do some things training-wise to make sure we can manage that real well.”
To prepare for Indianapolis, the UF men’s team will have its Last Chance Meet from Friday to Sunday in the O’Connell Center. The diving team, meanwhile, will take part in the NCAA Zone Diving event in Auburn, Alabama, March 6 through March 8.
Contact Sean Denison at sdenison@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @seandenison.
Florida's Caeleb Dressel reacts after winning the 100-yard freestyle at the NCAA men's swimming and diving championships Saturday, March 26, 2016, in Atlanta. The initials on his face are in honor of a former teacher. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
