Over the past two weeks, both the women’s and men’s college swimming and diving seasons officially concluded.
But because of the upcoming Olympics, 21 swimmers from both the Florida men’s and women’s teams will spend the next three months training for the Summer games in Rio de Janeiro.
"We’ve got a lot of people with aspirations in that matter," UF coach Gregg Troy said. "They’ll all get back to what they’re doing pretty rigorously right away."
Among the UF swimmers that are preparing to qualify for the Summer Olympics, 13 will be competing for a spot on the U.S. swim team at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, beginning June 26.
One of the early favorites to make the cut for the U.S. Olympic swimming team this summer is sophomore Caeleb Dressel.
The 19-year-old from Green Cove Springs has not only placed himself on the winner’s podium and into the record books over the past month, but has also been the recipient of national attention.
During the Southeastern Conference Championships at the end of February, Dressel broke the national record in the 50-yard freestyle twice on the same day with a final time of 18.23 seconds.
Last week in the NCAA Championships, not only did Dressel best his previous record-breaking time in the 50 again (18.20), but he also annihilated all the single-race records in the 100-yard freestyle (40.46) by 0.30 seconds en-route to his second championship of the week.
What surprised his coach and former team U.S.A. swimming coach was not necessarily his overall speed, but the amount of times Dressel was able to clock these record-breaking speeds.
"That type of consistency is amazing," Troy said.
"His work ethic is fantastic. What we saw was a direct correlation of the work he put in."
Dressel will attempt to qualify for the Olympics in three different events, tied for second-most among Florida swimmers with sophomore Amelia Maughan and one behind sophomore Jan Switkowski.
But following the Olympics, Dressel will be right back at UF to compete in the fall. The same can’t be said of other Florida swimmers.
The women’s team will be losing nine swimmers and divers to graduation, including Florida’s top diver Kahlia Warner and swimmer Natalie Hinds.
While the men’s team is only losing seven seniors to graduation, there will be some indispensable parts to replace from the four-time conference championship-winning class. Among the seven seniors leaving will be Arthur Frayler, arguably Florida’s best endurance swimmer, and Corey Main, UF’s second winningest male swimmer last season.
"On the surface you hate to lose those guys, but at the same time (with) our recruiting class coming in and the younger guys we have … we feel good about the future," Troy said.
Both teams are projected to have strong recruiting classes, with each currently holding a minimum of two commitments from top-50 national high school swimmers from the 2016 class.
And with swimmers such as Dressel, Switkowski and Maughan returning for the Gators next season, Troy is optimistic about the direction both of his teams are headed.
"I think the future is really bright," Troy said.
We’re not going backwards. If anything we’re planning on going forward on both sides."
Contact Sean Doty at sdoty@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @TheRealSeanDoty.
Khalia Warner dives during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
