It did not take long for Florida’s Caeleb Dressel to get acclimated to Ohio State’s pool. Dressel, the defending NCAA Champion in the 50-yard freestyle, had a dominant showing at the meet.
Dressel won his signature event, the 50-yard freestyle, by nearly a full second. The sophomore touched in at 18.77, easily making the NCAA ‘A’ time standard.
Dressel also helped the Gators to a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay, the first men’s event of the day. Florida also brought home the relay title in the women’s 200-yard freestyle event, clocking in at 1:30.16.
Jessica Thielmann continued the Gators roll in the 500-yard freestyle. Thielmann won the race by almost three seconds, posting a time of 4:39.82. In the men’s 500-yard event, Florida had swimmers finish in first, second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth place. Jan Switkowski led the way, bringing home the victory with a time of 4:15.43.
Florida did not slow down for the 200-yard individual medley. Ashlee Lin won the women’s event for the Gators with a time of 1:58.14. For the men, Florida’s Mark Szaranek brought home the victory over Ohio State’s Ching Lim.
The women’s 50-yard freestyle was the only event of the evening that the Gators did not win. Ohio State’s Zhesi Li brought home the victory in front of her home crowd. Li finished with a time of 21.83 – an ‘A’ time standard.
After Dressel’s dominant performance in the men’s 50-yard freestyle, the Gators won the women’s 400-yard medley relay title with a time of 3:34.52. Florida also won the men’s event with a time of 3:06.50. Dressel swam the breaststroke leg of the relay for the Gators.
The meet continues tomorrow with the 200-yard medley relay, 400-yard individual medley, 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke and 800-yard freestyle relay.
Florida is the fifth-ranked men’s team in the country and 14th on the women’s side.
