Dressel Into Worlds in 100 Free: Day 2 US Worlds Roster Update

2018 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Caeleb Dressel snuck into the World Championships by the skin of his teeth, earning a chance to defend his 2017 World title.

Dressel’s 48.22 displaces Nathan Adrian by .03 for the second Worlds spot. Adrian will still go as a relay swimmer. That was one of only a handful of day 2 Pan Pacs swims faster than the qualifying meet for U.S. swimmers. There were no other changes in the projected Worlds roster, with Zach Harting coming up with a big swim to save his Worlds spot in the 200 fly and Olivia Smoliga hanging on to her 100 back spot.

Adrian’s drop out of Worlds individually makes him eligible for Pan Ams, and the resulting dominoes bump Ryan Held off of that team in the 50 and 100 free.

Clarification on Relay-Only Swimmers

With the relay events now officially settled, we’re getting some questions on the rules regarding relay-only swimmers. FINA rules stipulate that any swimmer entered into Worlds as a relay only swimmer must swim prelims or finals of the relay in which they are entered. If they do not, the relay is disqualified.

Here are the caveats on that:

  • If a swimmer made a relay event but also a different individual event (say, Simone Manuel, who is the 5th qualifier in the 4×200 free relay but also made the 100 individually) then they are not a relay-only swimmer and are not required to swim that relay in either prelims or finals.
  • If a swimmer is a relay-only swimmer in two different relays (say, Zach Apple, who is the 5th qualifier in the 100 free and 6th qualifier in the 200 free), that relay-only swimmer must only swim either of the two relays at Worlds – he could bow out of one or the other with no penalty.

So for those wondering about the possibility of adding Katie McLaughlin to the women’s 4×200 or Jack Conger to the men’s 4×200: those lineup moves are possible. They would just require (probably) more alternates to swim in prelims to get their required relay-only swim out of the way. Team USA has been burned by alternates before (see: the 2015 Worlds men’s 4×100 free relay), but could opt for that strategy to put forward their best lineup in 2019.

Current relay-only swimmers on the U.S. Worlds roster:

  • Conor Dwyer (men’s 4×200 free)
  • Nathan Adrian (men’s 4×100 free)
  • Zach Apple (men’s 4×100 free, men’s 4×200 free)
  • Jack Levant (men’s 4×200 free)
  • Michael Chadwick (men’s 4×100 free)
  • Gabby Deloof (women’s 4×200 free)
  • Margo Geer (women’s 4×100 free)
  • Lia Neal (women’s 4×100 free)

Worlds Qualifiers – Day 2 Pan Pacs Events

The following are the top 2 (or top 6 in relay events) based on combined results of Nationals Finals (denoted “Nats”) and Pan Pacs A and B Finals (denoted “Pan Pacs”). Athletes bumped from the team at Pan Pacs are crossed out.

The top 2 in every event earn individual swims at 2019 Worlds. 3rd and 4th in the relay events earn relay swims. 5th and 6th earn prelims relay swims, if roster space allows.

Women

100 free

  1. Simone Manuel, 52.54 (Nats)
  2. Mallory Comerford, 52.94 (Pan Pacs)
  3. Margo Geer, 53.44 (Nats)
  4. Abbey Weitzeil, 53.56 (Nats)
  5. Lia Neal, 53.95 (Nats)
  6. Allison Schmitt, 54.24 (Nats)

200 fly

  1. Hali Flickinger, 2:06.14 (Nats)
  2. Katie Drabot, 2:07.18 (Nats)

100 back

  1. Kathleen Baker, 58.00 (Nats)
  2. Olivia Smoliga, 58.75 (Nats)

Men

100 free

  1. Blake Pieroni, 48.08 (Nats)
  2. Caeleb Dressel, 48.22 (Pan Pacs)
  3. Nathan Adrian, 48.25 (Nats)
  4. Townley Haas, 48.30 (Nats)
  5. Zach Apple, 48.34 (Nats)
  6. Michael Chadwick, 48.44 (Nats)

200 fly

  1. Justin Wright, 1:54.63 (Nats)
  2. Zach Harting, 1:55.05 (Pan Pacs)

100 back

  1. Ryan Murphy, 51.94 (Pan Pacs)
  2. Matt Grevers, 52.55 (Nats)

Full projected 2019 Rosters

As we did during Nationals, we’ll continue tracking projected rosters. Be aware that we’re updating these rosters as the meet progresses, so nothing here is official or finalized until the end of the meet. The italicized names are in line for spots based on Nationals results. As athletes lock in their roster spots, we’ll remove the italics from their names and events. Events in (parentheses) remain unofficial, pending Pan Pacs results.

Our embedded spreadsheet sometimes takes a few minutes after publishing to appear correctly on this page, even though we’ve already made the document public. If the sheet says permissions aren’t enabled, wait a few minutes for the embedded document to connect correctly.

Women

Men

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Buona
5 years ago

So many people finding excuses for him.. Before pan pacific championships, his fans boasted how fast he can swim, crushing the field by a body length, breaking the WR etc.. Now looks like they have to suck their thumb.. Probably he can only win his 100 fly.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Buona
5 years ago

check the comment above – it will help u understand the paradox going on here …..

Love to Swim
Reply to  ERVINFORTHEWIN
5 years ago

I’m a fan of Dressel, but to be fair Buona has a point there.

Before the Nats, vocal commenters kept throwing numbers. They claimed Dressel would swim 57 in 100Br, and break WRs in 50/100 free, 100 fly, and 200 IM.

During the Nats, the narrative changed: they claimed Dressel was not full tapered yet and they he would blow everyone away in Pan Pacs. And now the narrative changed again: he overtrained.

Luigi
5 years ago

The only reason why Dressel almost didn’t make it to World’s in the 100 free is the crazy selection method. Forcing swimmers to hit top form in the middle of the quad. Crazy.

SVIRD
Reply to  Luigi
5 years ago

Welcome to USA swimming.

Emanuele
5 years ago

From: 2018 PAN PACS PREVIEWS: DRESSEL-CHALMERS SHOWDOWN IN MEN’S SPRINTS
“Dressel by a bodylength”

25 free champ
Reply to  Emanuele
5 years ago

I think the most upvotes went to my comment calling for them to show some respect to Chalmers.

SVIRD
Reply to  25 free champ
5 years ago

To be fair if Dressel went close to his PB he would have won by a body length. It’s not like Chalmers swam amazing the field was just slow. Slow year for the 100 free (nobody broke 48 at Euros either).

Wirotomo
Reply to  SVIRD
5 years ago

Yeah, if McEvoy went close to his PB he would have become an olympic champion. Yeah…
But he didn’t. So did Dressel.

SVIRD
5 years ago

At least this isn’t an Olympic year. Something about Dressel’s training this year absolutely didn’t work (for long course anyway). I hope they recognize the problem and fix it. Give him a few weeks off after pan pacs and go back to the drawing board I guess.

Caeleb Dressel Will Win 9 Gold Medals in Tokyo
Reply to  SVIRD
5 years ago

I think he should take 2 months off. He needs a break.

marklewis
5 years ago

Dressel time was just enough to give him the 2nd spot in the 100. He looked like he was in 4th or 5th down the stretch, but really hit the finish to tie for 2nd.

He’s a long way from the 47s of last year. But it was kind of a gutsy swim.

MTK
Reply to  marklewis
5 years ago

I’m sure that given the situation, he’s happy enough with that result. I honestly can’t fathom that he almost didn’t get to swim 100free at WC next year…

Caleb
5 years ago

interesting – 2 of top 4 times this summer won’t be guaranteed relay spots. And Nathan Adrian was only *5th* fastest man of the summer. U.S. 100 freestyle still looks very strong, even with off-seasons by the presumed top two.
Best times of the year:
1. Apple 48.03
2. Pieroni 48.08
3. Dressel 48.13
4. Jackson 48.20
5. Adrian 48.21
6. Haas 48.30

HOYA13
5 years ago

Really hoping McLaughlin holds on to her 100 fly slot and gets a chance to throw down on the 4×200 or 4×100 at Worlds. Her leg on the 4×200 at 2015 Worlds was a thing of beauty.

Definitely Not Sun Yang
5 years ago

Unrelated, but I just want to say that Kyle Chalmers is a beast. Such a tough/consistent racer and always deliver when it counts. A week ago, so many people were saying that he’d be beaten by a body length. Watch out in the men’s 4×1 relay

Caleb
Reply to  Definitely Not Sun Yang
5 years ago

Chalmers, yes — great long-term rivalry with Dressel.
Relay – forget it, AUS.

Caeleb Dressel Will Win 9 Gold Medals in Tokyo
Reply to  Definitely Not Sun Yang
5 years ago

Mainly because Dressel is overtrained

Joel

Love the excuses. But swimmers from other countries are never allowed to have excuses for underperforming ?

Caeleb Dressel Will Win 9 Gold Medals in Tokyo
Reply to  Joel
5 years ago

But we know that Dressel was doing unusually heavy training for sprinters. Doing 20x400s is not my idea of sprint training. In March, he was invincible. The way he was going, many people here thought he would break world records. And about other athletes underperforming, when did I ever say they were not overtrained? I don’t know other athletes’ training. Maybe they did miss tapers on occasion. But the signs do show that Dressel is overtrained. Even Troy said he may have overtrained him.

HonestObserver
Reply to  Definitely Not Sun Yang
5 years ago

Kyle Chalmers, to date, is basically having Simone Manuel’s career. He’s not quite the fastest ever, but he knows how to eke out a victory on the biggest stages. (Okay, I realize he hasn’t won at Worlds, and he hasn’t had a glorious yards career, both of which Manuel has, but the parallel is there…..)

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Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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