Caeleb Dressel Breaks Joe Hudepohl’s 15-16 NAG Record

The Bolles boys team is so fast this year, that they could fairly be mistaken for a college team. Not just any college team, but a pretty good college team.

Then, it’s easy to forget that they’re actually only in high school, and even at that some are only 16 years old. They’re excelling in events where 16 year olds usually aren’t strong enough or developed enough to be as good as these guys are. Events like the sprint freestyles, where age is most directly correlated with relative time drops among all disciplines.

When Caeleb Dressel won the men’s 100 free on Saturday, he just barely missed the Meet Record, but what he did do was destroy the oldest 100 yard free record, men’s or women’s of any age group, still on the books with a 43.29. Hudepohl’s old record of 43.83 came in 1990 – 22 years ago.

That’s half-a-second off of a record that stood for 22 years (a mile if it’s a yard in a 100 free). Something that is becoming more-and-more common in these NAG Records (see Allie Szekely, cutting two seconds off of an 8 year old record, for example) but somehow still continues to shock every time.

Hudepohl’s record in its time was so amazing that it wasn’t even approached until Kyle Bubolz broke 44 seconds in 2003; the second-fastest 100 free time of the 90’s was a 44.5 for this age group. Paul Powers out of Georgia came very close earlier this year with another sub 44 offering, and though he still has plenty of time to clear Hudepohl’s old standard, though to get the record he’s not got a much higher bar.