Dressel Says He Will Lead Off Gators’ 800 Free Relay

2017 MEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

Florida junior Caeleb Dressel announced on Twitter that he will be leading off the Gators’ 800 Free Relay to open up the men’s NCAA’s championships.

Updates:

  1.  Former Bolles club teammate Joe Schooling tweeted back at Schooling in a vein suggesting that Dressel was not being serious.
  2. As of a few minutes ago, Florida was the only school not to turn in its relay card, according to an announcement.
  3. Final Update: Dressel did not swim the relay for Florida.

We’re taking Dressel at face value here, and if true, this is an absolute game changer in this relay.  The Texas Longhorns, as the defending championships and with at least three members of the USA’s 4×200 free relay team on this relay, were the prohibitive favorites.  But, as we said in our preview, the Florida squad is very deep in this distance, and with Dressel they can challenge for the win.

No word yet on the exact composition of the rest of the Gators’ relay, but it should include three of the following four:

Mitch D’Arrigo (1:32.69 split at 2016 NCAAs)
Maxime Rooney (1:31.54 split at 2017 SECs)
Jan Switkowski (1:31.33 split at 2016 NCAAs)
Mark Szaranek (1:32.7ish split at 2016 NCAAs and 2017 SECs)

Dressel sports a 1:33.42 lifetime best in the 200 yard freestyle, but a 1:48.39 best in long course.  Given those numbers, along with his 40-point 100 free, and you have to figure  a tapered Dressel should be good for at least a 1:32-low, and almost certainly a 1:31-mid or better.

If Dressel is able to leadoff with even a 1:31.5, that, plus the best splits from above, puts the Gators roughly a 6:07 flat, over a second faster than the Longhorns swam to set the U.S. Open and NCAA records last year.

Update: Dressel did not swim the event, instead giving way to Switkowski, Rooney, D’Arrigo and Szaranek.

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Sccoach
6 years ago

Ugh I fell for it and bumped Florida up to #2 in the 800 in pick em. Damn you Dressel!!!

Uberfan
6 years ago

Dressel playing mind games

Pete Manieri
6 years ago

1:29 plus

Attila the Runt
Reply to  Pete Manieri
6 years ago

It is kinda scary to think what he could potentially do.

Peter Davis
6 years ago

He went 1:35 multiple times in dual meets, 1:34.60 in December, and 1:33.42 last month at a last chance meet. I also find it strange for a swimmer to make this statement, or even be on social media during(or I guess right before) NCAAs. Perhaps some of the commenters here are right and he is “trolling,” which I find equally, if not more, strange. I guess we will see here shortly

Joe
6 years ago

Joe Schooling’s twitter response is great: https://twitter.com/joschooling/status/844638358836051969

d3fan
6 years ago

excellent trolling. No way he swims the 8. It will be Rooney, D’Arrigo, Switkowski, Baqlah…..and that’s a damn good relay…..swapping in Rooney for the graduated Werner is a major upgrade.

d3fan
Reply to  d3fan
6 years ago

Cannot believe this is getting down voted and people actually believe this tweet. People will believe anything they see tweeted today. Sad!

Cmon
6 years ago

Now we need to see if Murphy held and schooling are on it. If schooling is I think he shuts the door on anyone besides Texas winning. If not, and Murphy held and dressel have crazy splits, they all have a chance. Still probably Texas tho

dru
Reply to  Cmon
6 years ago

schooling is out, he’s swimming 3 individual events (only swam the 1 & 2 fly last year, thus allowing him to swim all 5 relays).. with newkirk splitting 1:32.6 at big 12 championships, they can save schooling for the other relays

curious to see which relay NCState keeps held off.. ditto cal with murphy

Dre
6 years ago

So I’m gonna assume no 400 medley relay ? And they put Maxine Rooney at free instead of caeleb…? I mean they will still def get top3 I’m sure but this is confusing me !!!!!

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