Before the NCAA Championships began, sophomore Caeleb Dressel was already Florida’s biggest winner this season.
"In meets like (the NCAA Championship) you’ve always got to shoot to win. That way if you fall a little short, you still find some success," coach Gregg Troy said in a release.
But Dressel, a second-year swimmer from Green Cove Springs, has taken that wisdom to heart all season long. Going into the NCAA meet, he already had 40 victories on the year, including three individual wins in the SEC Championship meet.
So when it was time for Dressel to compete in the NCAAs for the second time in his collegiate career, his mindset was simple: swim for the win.
While Florida’s men’s swimming and diving team fell about 200 points short of claiming its third overall national championship and had to settle for a third-place, Dressel left with two individual victories and seven top-five finishes.
Dressel’s first individual race of the meet came Thursday night in the 50-yard freestyle.
After setting the NCAA and American record at the SEC Championships with a time of 18.23 seconds back in February, Dressel was the pre-race favorite to repeat as national champion.
After building a 0.41-second lead over the field in the first 25 yards, the real question was just how fast the sophomore could go.
Ultimately, Dressel broke his previous record with a time of 18.20.
In the 100-yard butterfly on Friday, Dressel nearly captured his second individual national championship of the meet.
Despite swimming a time of 44.40 seconds, Dressel was outdone by Texas’ Joseph Schooling, who swam an NCAA and American record 44.01-second time.
Dressel also competed in four of Florida’s five relay events in Atlanta.
While they were unable to claim any relay victories, the Gators finished in the top five in all five races, including a third-place in Saturday night’s 400-yard freestyle relay.
Prior to Saturday night’s relay, Dressel competed in his final individual event of the meet: the 100-yard freestyle.
After finishing second to the defending national champion, NC State’s Simonas Bilis, by 0.14 seconds in Saturday’s preliminary round, the odds were stacked against Dressel early.
But when it was time for the final round on Saturday evening, Dressel saved his best performance for the biggest stage.
Defeating Bilis by 0.72 seconds, as well as smashing the NCAA and U.S. Open record by 0.30 seconds, Dressel put his exclamation mark on the week by winning his second individual championship with a final time of 40.46.
Between Wednesday and Saturday night’s events, the Gators captured 37 total All-America honors and 11 top-five finishes in Atlanta.
The Gators’ third-place finish marked the 17th consecutive season that the team has finished in the top-10 at the NCAAs.
It also matches the best finish the Gators have had in the NCAAs since Troy took over the coaching duties on the men’s side.
"In meets like this, you’ve got to rely on mental strength, teammates, friends, and families," Dressel said in a release.
"We got a complete team effort this week and it made our success so much more enjoyable."
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.
