Caeleb Dressel Races at Florida Senior Championships in Ocala

2025 Florida Swimming Summer Senior Championships

• July 17-20, 2025
• Florida Aquatics Swimming & Training, Ocala, Florida
• Long Course Meters (50 meters), Prelims/Finals
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2025 Florida Summer Senior Championships”

Correction: a Previous version of this article said that this was Dressel’s post-Olympic debut, but he raced at the Pro Swim Series in Ft. Lauderdale in May.

Olympic gold medalist and World Record holder Caeleb Dressel swam just his second meet since the Paris Olympics this weekend at the 2025 Florida Swimming Summer Senior Championships in Ocala.

The 28-year-old raced the 50 free (22.67), 100 fly (52.33), and 50 fly (23.69) through the first three days of competition. He won all of those events except the 50 free, where 19-year-old Florida undergrad Devin Dilger took the top spot in 22.53, shaving .06 seconds off his previous best time.

Dressel was faster in heats of both the 50 free (22.62) and 50 fly (23.34) than he was in finals.

While none of those times are world-beaters, they all show a real level of training. They are similar times to his return from his 2022-2023 break from competition, where he emerged from the cocoon with times of 22.57 in the 50 free and 52.41 in the 100 fly at the Speedo Atlanta Classic in May.

Dressel last raced at the Pro Swim Series meet in Ft. Lauderdale in late April/early May, where he swam 22.21 in the 50 free and 23.32 in the 50 fly. Prior to that, his last swims came at Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where he added two more gold medals in the men’s 400 free relay and mixed 400 medley relay, plus a silver in the men’s 400 medley relay to his tally. That brought him up to 10 career Olympic medals.

Individually, he finished 6th in the 50 free and 13th in the 100 fly at those Games.

After Paris, Dressel was quiet about his future in the sport, but at least for one meet is back to racing locally this weekend while Team USA prepares for the start of the World Championships next weekend in Singapore. Dressel didn’t swim at last month’s U.S. National Championships, the selection meet for the World Championships.

Dressel is not currently listed in the entries for the men’s 100 free prelims, or any other race, on Sunday morning.

Other Meet Highlights So Far

• Dilger has been the highlight of a big University of Florida squad at the meet so far. Besides his win and best time in the 50 free, he also won the 200 free in 1:50.47, which knocked 2.13 seconds off his previous lifetime best from Sectionals in late June in this same pool (which he also won). In total he  has had almost three seconds of improvement this year in long course after dropping 1+ seconds in yards for Florida, finishing his season at the Florida Invitational.
• Anna Moore, another Florida undergrad, dominated the women’s 200 breaststroke final by almost 20 seconds, finishing in 2:30.84. A huge back-half split of 1:18.24 helped her drop over a second off her previous best time, where she closed in 1:19.05.
  • Moore also finished 2nd in the 200 IM in 2:16.67, another big time drop of more than two seconds. That race was won by teammate Addison Reese in 2:16.58, with Reese running down Moore on the freestyle leg for a narrow win. Reese also grabbed wins in the 100 fly (59.65) and 50 free (26.24); the 100 fly and 200 IM were personal bests for the rising Gator sophomore.
• 16-year-old Owen Ekk from ATAC, who along with his siblings have been focused on representing Canada internationally, won the 200 IM in 2:05.19 and the 400 IM in 4:27.62. This is just the 2nd time he has swum the 400 IM in long course, with the last being in late June, and was a 13 second improvement on that time. His older brother Ethan will swim for Canada at the World Championships next week.
• Florida’s Catie Choate won the 100 back in 59.86 after breaking 1 minute in prelims for the first time with a 59.72. She also finished 2nd in both the 100 fly and 50 fly, and has the 50 and 200 back left to swim on Sunday. Choate was a B-Finalist at the US National Championships in all three backstroke races.