(RACE VIDEO) Caeleb Dressel Stuns Swimming World With 18.23 NCAA, American Record 50 Free

Florida’s Caeleb Dressel made a 17-point 50-yard freestyle start to come into view for the entire sprinting community as he stunned the swimming world with an 18.23 NCAA and American record during finals of the men’s 50-yard free at the 2016 Southeastern Conference Championships.

Dressel, who first blasted an 18.39 this morning during prelims to break the NCAA and American record, took that time even lower with a scorching 18.23.

Dressel, who blasted his way to a sizzling 23.43 breaststroke split for Florida en route to the Gators winning the SEC title in the 200-yard medley relay with a 1:23.69 last night, pounced on the 50-yard free this morning with a sizzling 18.39.

That prelim swim completely wiped out Nathan Adrian’s American record of 18.66 set back in 2011 in Minneapolis, while also undercutting Cesar Cielo’s 2008 NCAA mark of 18.47 set in Federal Way. Incidentally, he also thumped the previous pool record of 19.24 set by Jimmy Feigen with Texas back in 2009.

#HungarianHammer is 2nd in 19.17, Darmody 7th in 19.52. pic.twitter.com/uNek6jRcW8

— Auburn Swim & Dive (@AuburnSwimming) February 18, 2016

 Event 12  Men 50 Yard Freestyle
=========================================================================
      US Open: O 18.39  2/17/2016 Caleb Dressel, Florida
         NCAA: N 18.39  2/17/2016 Caleb Dressel, Florida
     American: M 18.39  2/17/2016 Caleb Dressel, Florida
     SEC Meet: S 18.39  2/17/2016 Caleb Dressel, Florida
         Pool: P 18.39  2/17/2016 Caleb Dressel, Florida
                 19.18  A
                 20.19  B
    Name           Year School            Prelims     Finals       Points 
=========================================================================
                            === A - Final ===                            
 
  1 Dressel, Caeleb  SO FLOR-FL             18.39      18.23OA       32  
         r:+0.64                       
  2 Holoda, Peter    SO AUB-SE              19.30      19.17 A       28  
         r:+0.70                       
  3 Chadwick, Micha  JR Mizzou-MV           19.37      19.23 B       27  
         r:+0.67                       
  4 Gkolomeev, Kris  JR Alabama-SE          19.21      19.25 B       26  
         r:+0.68                       
  5 Main, Corey C    SR FLOR-FL             19.60      19.36 B       25  
         r:+0.61                       
  6 Decoursey, Kyle  FR Tennessee-SE        19.65      19.43 B       24  
         r:+0.73                       
  7 Darmody, Kyle J  JR AUB-SE              19.44      19.52 B       23  
         r:+0.67                       
  8 Walsh, Brett H   SR Alabama-SE          19.61      19.74 B       22  
         r:+0.63

Heading into today, Dressel’s previous best time had been an 18.67 at the 2015 NCAA Men’s Championships. He’s now cleared 19 seconds a total of 10 times since first breaking the barrier as a precocious junior swimmer with an 18.94 relay leadoff at the 2013 Speedo Winter Junior Nationals.

The big question now is whether head coach Gregg Troy follows through on his pre-season promise to shave his mustache if Dressel posted an 18.39.

During a pre-season Q&A held by Florida Athletics, Dressel started the following exchange:

“Caeleb Dressel: What time would you take in a 50 free for you to shave your mustache?

GT: Short course 18.39 / Long course 20.89.”

Florida Athletics is on record stating that should the shave actually happen, it will make sure it gets plenty of coverage.

Dressel then closed the night with a casual 18.41 split for the Gators during a winning 1:16.46 in the men’s 200-yard free relay.

  1 FLOR-FL                       1:17.55    1:16.46PA       64  
     1) Main, Corey C SR              2) r:0.32 Szaranek, Mark SO     
     3) r:0.18 Dressel, Caeleb SO     4) r:0.12 Blyzinskyj, Jack JR   
    r:15.37  19.43        39.00 (19.57)
          57.41 (18.41)     1:16.46 (19.05)

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

Name*

Email*

21 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Frost

8 years ago

Tomorrow, I’ll go down, get a good warmup, and see if I can go faster than that. Unfortunately I will be running 50 yards on a track and probably go slower than that….

A truly amazing feat to watch…

Jacqueline Strandemo Jahner

8 years ago

Wow!

Jeanine Apuron

8 years ago

Evan Apuron wowsa!

Patt Chase

8 years ago

Absolutely outstanding!

Tiana Sandoval

8 years ago

Paulina Gutierrez read this, it’s insane! Also if you watch the video skip to 2:05ish because everything before that is the officials announcing the swimmers

Paulina Gutierrez

8 years ago

Reply to Tiana Sandoval

Dude this is crazy

Dave Hoover

8 years ago

I can’t believe the size of lead he establish just coming out of the breakout…..yowser. Hopefully Dressel can wipe that smug look off Manaudou’s face come Summer…