The Bolles School Sharks of Jacksonville, Florida hosted their yearly Spring Classic over the weekend, with many of the club’s biggest names in attendance. Standout 2014 high school grads Joseph Schooling and Caeleb Dressel were competing, along with 14-year-old rising star Reece Whitley, who is training with the Sharks for the summer before heading back to his Penn Charter club.
Also competing were a host of internationals who train at the Bolles School, including Colombians Omar Pinzon, and Carolina Colorado, Croatian Mario Todorovich, and Singapore’s Tao Li.
The aforementioned Schooling and Dressel had very different weekends. Schooling won four events in the two days he competed, while Dressel seemed to struggle after a lengthy break from competition, and ended his weekend by scratching out of his lone Sunday swim.
Friday
Bolles High School swimmer and Texas signee Joseph Schooling won twice on Friday, doubling up in the 200 IM and 100 fly. Schooling’s IM win was a blowout, as his 2:02.51 was enough to win by almost five seconds. He had to work harder for the second win, though, beating out a very tough field that included Colombian Olympian Omar Pinzon (55.34, 2nd), Croatian Olympian Mario Todorovich (55.35, 3rd), as well as his Bolles School teammate Caeleb Dressel (56.97, 9th).
Also doubling up that night was Singapore national Tao Li. Tao won the 200 IM to kick things off in 2:23.82. Then in the 100 fly, she topped Colombia’s Carolina Colorado 1:00.82 to 1:01.67 for her second win. Colorado was fresh off a win of her own in the 100 back, where she went 1:02.60.
Dressel was in action in arguably his top event, the 50 free, but was beaten by Todorovich, the Croatian speedster. Todorovich finished in 23.77, while Dressel wound up at 24.25 for second place as he eases back into competition after an extended break. He swam three events Friday night – in addition to the 100 fly and 50 free, he went 59.79 in taking second in the 100 back.
14-year-old NAG record-holder Reece Whitley swam three events Friday night. He won the 400 IM for the 13-14 age group, going 4:41.63. He also added second-places in a pair of races, the 50 free (25.99) and 100 fly (1:00.65).
Saturday
Schooling once again doubled up on Saturday, winning the first two events back-to-back. The Singapore national went 1:51.58 to win the 200 free early on, leading another Colombian Olympian into the wall. This time it was 26-year-old Julio Galofre who was second. Galofre went 1:52.75.
Schooling also won the 200 fly, putting up a 2:02.30 to once again top Galofre, who went 2:03.43.
The men’s 100 breast that night was a very fast race, with Colombian national record-holder Jorge Murillo Valdes going 1:01.90 and coming within .7 seconds of his own national record. He beat Russian Anton Lobanov (1:03.11) and Spain’s Melquides Alvarez Caraballo (1:03.42), each of whom was also quick on the night.
Dressel also swam the event, going 1:13.69 out of prelims, but was listed on Meet Mobile as swimming a 1:23.98 at finals, and scratched out of his 100 free the next day, ending his weekend early.
Whitley rattled his first NAG record of the weekend, nearly taking down a Michael Andrew mark in the 100 breast. His 1:04.80 was just about a second shy of the record. Meanwhile he also won the 200 IM in 2:12.43.
Sunday
Probably the biggest news out of Sunday’s meet came from the age group events. In the final race of the night, the 14-year-old Whitley took down his first long-course individual National Age Group record, going 2:19.74 to win the 200 breaststroke. That time knocked off the old mark held by Gunnar Bentz at 2:20.48.
Whitley’s time would have garnered him third in a pretty solid open age group field. Caraballo of Spain won that event in 2:16.03, with 100 breast winner Valdes second in 2:16.91. But from there it dropped off to Lobanov, who took third with a 2:20.29.
Pinzon won the 200 back with a 2:01.74, easily outpacing a young field. In the women’s 100 free, Slovak swimmer and Virginia Tech grad Katarina Filova got her first win of the weekend, going 57.73 to just eke out Colorado’s 57.84. Meanwile on the men’s side it was Todorovich who picked up the win, leaving Galofre with yet another second place. Todorovich was 52.28 to Galofre’s 52.95.
Full results are available on Meet Mobile under “2014 BSS TYR Summer Classic.”
Perhaps Coach Jason (Calanog I presume) who sometimes posts comments here on swmswam could give us some fresh news about his young sprint star.
A lot of swimming fans in the world are a little worried about Caeleb Dressel’s health.
He’s so talented. We need some news!
Is Caeleb alright and healthy? I remember he had breathing problems at juniors; is that what caused him to take a break? It’s a shame to see someone so talented be off his game for external reasons.
I think I remember reading someones post about him just relaxing the past 2 months or something. Just enjoying life as a kid before he goes to college. Still swimming obviously but not 100% focused on it. but I could be mistaken.