Caeleb Dressel Qualifies 1st in 50 & 200 Frees on Saturday in Mission Viejo

2019 MISSION VIEJO SWIM MEET OF CHAMPIONS

After a breakthrough brace of 47.9s on Friday, World Champion Caeleb Dressel had a pair of more measured preliminary swims on Saturday morning in Mission Viejo at the Fran Crippen Memorial Swim Meet of Champions. Swimming heats of both the 50 and 200 freestyles, Dressel qualified 1st in each – opening with a 1:48.87 in the 200 free, and finishing his session with a 22.31 in the 50 free about 50 minutes later.

For context on the 200 free: he went his lifetime best in Richmond in April in that event of 1:47.31. In prelims of that meet, he swam just 1:49.67 – 8-tenths slower than he was on Saturday morning.

In the 200, he’ll be chased by a loaded field that includes Italian Olympian, turned American competitor, Mitch D’Arrigo (1:49.37) and one of Germany’s top talents Jacob Heidtmann (1:49.44).

In the men’s 50 free, it will be a battle of 2 of the best starters in the world, with Dressel lined up next to South Africa’s Brad Tandy (22.33) in the final. Ali Khalafalla qualified 3rd in that 50 in 22.61.

Other Saturday Prelims Highlights:

  • China has the top 2 qualifiers in the 50 free with Zhang Yufei finishing the heats in 25.42 and Zhu Menghui finishing in 25.57. Allison Schmitt also qualified for the A final in that race with a 26.58.
  • Jacob Pebley was the 2nd qualifier in the men’s 200 back in 2:02.62, just .15 seconds behind Arizona State’s Zachary Poti. Remember that in Pebley’s last meet, he beat the defending Olympic Champion Ryan Murphy in this event.
  • The 2018 US National Champion in the 400 IM Ally McHugh qualified 1st through in that event to finals in 4:41.80 (pending results of the B flight). That made her the top qualifier by 9 seconds (and 3.4 seconds better than anybody else in the field’s seed time.

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DRUKSTOP
4 years ago

Christ 21.51

Swimmer
4 years ago

21.51

Mr Piano
Reply to  Swimmer
4 years ago

@Ol’ Longhorn

Reginald
Reply to  Mr Piano
4 years ago

What did you do to him in the 200!!

Zanna
Reply to  Swimmer
4 years ago

Thats in Semis though

Aquajosh
Reply to  Zanna
4 years ago

He went 22.1 in semis

SwimFan01
4 years ago

1:50.59 for dressel looked like he was conserving energy for his two 50 Free’s later tonight

Swimming4silver
Reply to  SwimFan01
4 years ago

why there two 50 frees?

SwimFan01
Reply to  Swimming4silver
4 years ago

Semis and Finals

Ol’ Longhorn
Reply to  SwimFan01
4 years ago

Rrriigghhhttt.

Aquajosh
Reply to  SwimFan01
4 years ago

He definitely shut it down – his last 100 was the slowest of the final and he nearly went 29 on the last 50. Clearly he was saving for that 21.51 50.

Chlorine
4 years ago

Caeleb is just fine tuning for Worlds at this meet, do not expect anything sensational from him here, he will be solid though.

Xman
4 years ago

Are they doing semi and finals for the 50 free?

SwimFan01
Reply to  Xman
4 years ago

Don’t think so

SwimFan01
Reply to  SwimFan01
4 years ago

Actually there are semi finals

DMacNCheez
4 years ago

SwimSwam — Can you please live stream them on Instagram again? Please.

Joejoe
Reply to  DMacNCheez
4 years ago

Yes I will also videotape these races! 😉 Love, photographer Jack’s mom

tomato
4 years ago

1:46.88 & 21.78 tonight. You heard it here first.

Mr Piano
Reply to  tomato
4 years ago

Not if I have anything to say about it, and I do!

Ol’ Longhorn
Reply to  Mr Piano
4 years ago

I see you’ve moved from Shields to Dressel.

Joel Lin
Reply to  tomato
4 years ago

I’ll take the under on the 2 free. His 200s have been really good & he seems to be fully there in terms of endurance. Maybe the 21.7 speed isn’t quite there this weekend, but he could pop a 1:46 low or even a 1:45 high tonite.

Mr Piano
Reply to  Joel Lin
4 years ago

On a serious note, if Dressel goes 1:45 tonight, he is getting 8 gold medals in Tokyo. I say 1:46.9. He would definitely be 21.5 if he didn’t have the 200, but 21.7 does sound right. So I do agree with Tomato.

Ol’ Longhorn
Reply to  Mr Piano
4 years ago

Wait, was there a motorcycle accident between prelims and finals?

Mr Piano
Reply to  Ol’ Longhorn
4 years ago

Met him at Taco Bell before the meet. Said he wanted to loaf the 200 free to conserve energy for a 21.5 50 free, thus making Ol’ Longhorn pout and squirm.

Bobthebuilderrocks
Reply to  Mr Piano
4 years ago

Dressel eats at Taco Bell!? This justifies my dietary choices for the past few years!

Mr Piano
Reply to  Bobthebuilderrocks
4 years ago

Yes, and then he gave me his credit card number and social security number.

Bobthebuilderrocks
Reply to  Mr Piano
4 years ago

Oh…. my bad lol.

Camelboar
Reply to  Ol’ Longhorn
4 years ago

21.5

ArtVanDeLegh10
Reply to  tomato
4 years ago

Why would he go the same time in prelims/finals in the 100 free but the next day drop 2 secs in the 200 free and over .5 in the 50?

Joel Lin
Reply to  ArtVanDeLegh10
4 years ago

Because it feels like an Arby’s night.

dude
Reply to  Joel Lin
4 years ago

If I could upvote this more, I would

Swimmer
Reply to  ArtVanDeLegh10
4 years ago

Because there is a difference between swimming 2 races a day of 100 each and swimming 4 races of 500 total.

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Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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