With enough medals to fill a trophy case, Caeleb Dressel has grown accustomed to winning throughout his young swimming career.
This past weekend at the SEC Championship in Knoxville, Tennessee, Dressel continued his dominance during the five-day event.
Catapulted by Dressel’s strong performance, the Gators men’s swimming and diving team — which won at least one title each day of the competition — went on to win its fifth straight SEC title.
“It's always special, especially this group," coach Gregg Troy said. “We dealt with a lot of adversity this year. I was really happy with the way the team — both the men and the women — dealt with it.”
Dressel won every event he competed in. He won the 50 free, 100 fly and the 100 free. In the relay events, Dressel and his teammates captured first place in the 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay.
Dressel, who was named SEC Male Swimmer of the Meet, has now won three consecutive SEC titles in the 100 fly and is the back-to-back SEC champion in the 50 free, 100 free, 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay.
For all his dominance, Dressel was humble after winning the 50 free.
"There's room for improvement,” he said. “But I'm happy with the time for where I'm at now.”
Aside from Dressel, the Gators men’s team — which scored 1,271.5 points over the five-day meet — had strong performances across the board. On the Day 1 of the championship meet, the Gators men’s team swept both the 200 medley relay and 800 free relay.
During the 200 medley relay, the Gators recorded a nation-best, SEC record and A-cut time of 1:23.44.
Dressel — who became only the second man to split sub-18 seconds on a relay with a recorded time of 17.90 — was accompanied by teammates Jack Blyzinskyj, Chandler Bray and Jan Switkowski.
In their fifth consecutive season capturing the 800 free relay event, the Gators’ Khader Baqlah, Maxime Rooney, Mitch D’Arrigo and Mark Szaranek set a new conference record with a time of 6:12.18, breaking the previous record of 6:12.85.
Despite falling seconds shy from winning both the 200 individual medley and the 400 individual medley, Szaranek capped off his SEC performance finishing second in both events.
“There was a tremendous school record swim from Mark Szaranek,” Troy said. “There’s always places where you’d like to be better, but we raced really well.”
All together, the Gators men’s team won nine events, including sweeping every relay during the five-day meet.
In the 200 free, Enzo Martinez-Scarpe, Dressel, Switkowski and Blyzinskyj combined to win an A-cut 1:15.67, taking home the Gators’ second consecutive title in the event.
“We've come a long way to get to this point, and it's just good to trust your teammates and get a good win for the team,” Blyzinskyj said.
Also taking home a win for the Gators men’s team was Bayley Main, Bray, Switkowski and Dressel, who all combined to win the 400 medley relay. Maxime Rooney, meanwhile, went on to win his second title, the 200 free, touching in at a 1:32.18.
On the springboards, Samuel Smith — who gradually got better with each performance — was the lone bright spot for the Gator divers. Smith placed ninth in the 1-meter, eighth in the 3-meter, and then recorded a career-high 367.45 in the platform diving preliminaries, which was good enough for a sixth-place finish and a spot in Saturday’s finals.
In the finals, however, Sam scored 390.90 on the platform, which was good enough for the Knoxville native to finish in sixth place.
“He has led the way for this team the entire season,” dive coach Bryan Gillooly said. “He continues to set the tone for the future of Gator diving. He’s a huge asset to this team.”
In the evening’s final event, Rooney, Szaranek, Dressel and Switkowski won the 400 freestyle relay, touching in at 2:47.09.
The Gators women’s team, meanwhile, started the meet off finishing eighth in both the 200 medley relay and the 800 free relay. In the 100 fly event, Alyssa Yambor-Maul was the only representative for Florida on the women’s side, finishing fifth in the C-final.
“The young girls are having a lot of best times and are improving a lot,” head coach Gregg Troy said. “We just have to get better, but they’re doing a tremendous job.”
On the women’s platform, Teya Syskakis finished sixth and reached her first SEC event with a 271.40 score during preliminaries. She finished sixth in the final.
“I believe this is a big step for her in reaching her potential,” said Gillooly. “She is gaining confidence with every dive and is definitely heading in the right direction.”
The women’s team, which finished in seventh place, started the final day of competition strong. Senior Autumn Finke finished second in the 1650 free behind Auburn’s Ashley Neidigh.
The women’s team ended the conference meet finishing ninth in the final event, the 400 freestyle relay. The Gators’ A-team, which consists of Sherridon Dressel, Kelsey Dambacher, Tori Bindi and Kelly Fertel, touched in at 3:18.26.
"We're happy with the way those young girls stood up and raced," Troy said. "The experience they got is going to be invaluable.”
The Gators men’s swimming and diving team, which hasn’t lost since Oct. 28, continues to exceed expectations. Now winners of five SEC titles in a row, the Gators look to showcase their talents in the NCAA Championship next month in Indianapolis.
"It never gets old. In this conference, having the opportunity to race against these people is fantastic, and the way our folks handled the season was tremendous."
The NCAA diving meet begins March 6 and concludes March 8. The NCAA championships begin March 22 and conclude March 25.
Contact Sean Denison at sdenison@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @seandenison.
UF swimmer Caeleb Dressel slaps hands with a teammate during Florida's 183-117 win against Tennessee on Jan. 28, 2017, in the O'Connell Center.
