Caeleb Dressel, who has already won the 50 and 100 butterfly as well as the 50 and 200 freestyle races at the Southern Zone South Sectional Championships in Orlando, FL, won the men’s 100 free tonight in a time of 49.50. He dropped nearly 1.5 seconds from prelims to finals, and was the only swimmer under 51 seconds in either prelims or finals.
Last year, Dressel made a ton of noise after he broke 19 seconds in the 50 yard free to become the first junior swimmer to do so, ever. Nevertheless, he had a relatively quiet long course season, ending his summer without any best times in the sprint free events. He was a 49.93 last year at US Nationals.
His swims this weekend bode well for him as he’ll turn his attention to Nationals in early August. This 100 free, in particular, is tied with his 5th best time ever, swum at the 2013 US Nationals when he was just 16. His 49.50 tonight also marks his fastest ‘in-season’ swim ever, as it used to be a 50.70 from the 2014 Bulldog Grand Slam. Every other time he has swam the 100 free under 50 seconds, it has been at a US national championship or an international championship.
That was Dressel’s last swim of the evening, though there were a few other big swims that grabbed our attention. 20-year-old Matea Samardzic of Scarlet Aquatics blasted a 2:11.47 in the women’s 200 backstroke, which beat University of Florida standout Ashlee Linn (2:12.14) and 2012 200 back Olympic bronze medalist Elizabeth Beisel (2:12.41). Samardzic, who is transferring from St. Peter’s to SMU, has never been faster than 2:15, according to the SWIMS database. This swim puts her just over a second outside of the world’s top 25. Meanwhile, Beisel, who is still recovering from a groin injury that’s been plaguing her all year, put up her 2nd fastest time in 2015.
Natalie Hinds also had a nice swim in her 100 free, going 55.98 to be the only competitor under 57 seconds, let alone 56. Hinds has impressed this meet, winning the 50 and 100 fly (much like Dressel) and placing 2nd in the 50 free. She’d only been as fast as 56.94 in the event until tonight, and has notched season bests in all of her races at this meet. She actually tied her lifetime best of 26.85 in the 50 fly last night, and tonight’s 55.98 is just .48 off of her lifetime best in the 100.
University of Florida post-grads Dan Wallace and Hilda Luthersdottir won the men’s and women’s 200 breaststroke, Wallace in 2:15.32 and Luthersdottir in 2:27.48, the latter of which being about a second out of the world’s top 25.
Full meet results here as well as on Meet Mobile.
He went 49.2 when he was 16… Pretty sure he will be under 48 at nationals
Cielo won’t open the relay. He.is a relay beast. For the first time Brazil will open with a back half swimmer that is Santana.
Sorry I had a typing error.
Phelps *last at the turn…(although he does have beast turns) and end up half a second behind Brazil, Russia and AUS. We’ll all be like…great Athens all over again. Should have lead off with a speedster. That’s all I ask. Lead off with someone who can hit the wall within .2 of the fastest guys like Morozov and Cielo. That’s why I like Feigen he’s a big dude who can explode under all that wake. Strong finishesr like Phelps and Dressel(amazing first 15m) should be in the middle. Adrian brings it home
I understand Phelps is usually pretty slow to accelerate in season for 100 free, but this is the same guy who cracked a 47.5 lead-off leg in Beijing losing only to Eamon Sullivan.
Taking his 47.15 London split into consideration, at worst he would have been 48.0 leading off in that relay, which still would have him head-to-head with Magnussen for the lead.
Phelps is a monster in the 100 free when it counts, which is on the relay. I’d almost be interested to see an Adrian leadoff with a Phelps anchor, just for the fact that he can bring it home so well.
Mr Bobo you are definitely the man when it comes to the “swimformation”, but I like being the “Skip Bayless” in this situation.
Can we just assume Phelps is ready to lead off a relay of go another 47.10 oh he is second or third? The last thing we want is to have him lead off…beast at the turn…
Karl Ortegon, you write that Natalie Hinds has impressed this meet.
She has not impressed me at all.
I don’t see what was impressive.
1.00.16 in the 100 fly
26.21 in the 50 free
55.98 in the 100 free.
For a girl who is among the 5 best sprinters in college, we can expect much faster times in long course. Or she isn’t at all a long course swimmer.
I think she’s impressed in that she had all season best times and she’s almost definitely focusing her shave and taper on Nationals. No, she wasn’t near any world top 25 rankings, but she won multiple races at this meet and tied a lifetime best. I think that merits some attention, especially considering this probably isn’t the fastest she’ll be this summer.
Let’s see now what Mr Dressel has in store at US nationals, fully tapered, rested and fresh without the useless 200 IM and even 100 fly.
That sounds like Mr Briefstroke has Shields and Conger 1-2 in the 100m fly at Omaha. I like the bold prediction, because it makes sensible extrapolative improvements on known quantities that are young enough to improve, and does not make the error of assuming the same process for older swimmers like MP. Phelps will need to swim 50.7 this year and hold that level of excellence next year in order to qualify given the sterling competition in this event. That is a very tough ask.
Live results
http://www.sportstiming.com/2015-southern-zone-south-sectionals-psych-sheet-live-results/