The only two men so far to set FINA’s Junior World Record in the 100 free*, Brazilian Matheus Santana and American Caeleb Dressel will go head-to-head for the first time this week at the Arena Pro Swim Series meet in Charlotte.
Santana, the current record-holder, makes the journey up to Charlotte from Brazil, where he is the next in a long line of elite sprint specialists. He lands in Charlotte with a whole host of Brazil’s top sprinters, including world record-holder Cesar Cielo, Bruno Fratus and Marcelo Chierighini.
Santana, though, may turn out to be the best of them all. After turning 19 just last month, Santana has already been 48.25 in the 100, which ranked him with in the top 10 in the world for last season. He was the Youth Olympic Games gold medalist and comes into Charlotte with the 10th seed.
Dressel, meanwhile, was the original benchmark-setter for the Junior World Record. FINA began keeping track of Junior World marks in March of 2014, and used the results of the 2013 Junior World Championships as the starting “benchmarks.” That’s why we marked Dressel with that asterisk above – he was technically the first to set the bar for the Junior World Record, though at that point, his time was still considered the “benchmark” time as opposed to the actual record itself.
Dressel won that 2013 World Junior Championship in 48.97, only a few weeks after he had turned 17. Dressel took some time off in 2014 and didn’t approach that time again, but he came back with a vengeance this winter in his freshman season at the University of Florida.
The NCAA rookie nearly broke Nathan Adrian‘s short course American record while winning the NCAA title in the 50 free at 18.67. Charlotte will be our first chance to see how Dressel’s freshman progress transfers over to the long course pool. He’s still 18 years old, but isn’t eligible to break the Junior World Record anymore, as FINA calculates ages based on the end of the calendar year, when Dressel will be 19.
Dressel and Santana will go head-to-head in the 50, 100 and 200 frees this weekend. And though there is still plenty of time for scratches to shift the heat sheets some, based on the psych sheets released last week, the duo would actually wind up in the same circle-seeded heat of that 100 freestyle in the morning preliminaries.
Well, so what happened in this match-up? Did Dressel even swim the meet?
Markster aside from 18 on scy has he had anyone with sprint success on the real lcm? Doing well on scy does not mean doing well on lcm
Yes, assuming you include the 100 LCM and not only the 50 LCM.
If you only count the 50 LCM I am not as sure (I assume you mean someone that won medals at the World Champs LCM and the Olympics).
Would be interesting to know how many times Florent Manadou or Cielo (and many more) swim such sets, mmm, I bet never.
BOB,
I can’t talk about Florent, but Cielo does around 3 thousand meters/day.He usually does the double of that in the build-up phase(early January and February), but most of the time is only 3 thousand and more work in the weight room.
Looked through the psych sheets and saw former UVA standout is representing Club Wolverine. SwimSwam can you confirm that he has transferred to swim at Michigan? If so, big pickup for them
Troy reminds me of bowman, good at building the so called cup but lacks finesse and insight to take a different approach especially with the sprinters. I think this is why the rest of the world with smaller pools to draw from has caught up and is starting to pass the US in the sprint events. As an aside I think phelps should have went to Salo or a similar type coach. It fits Bowmans argument regarding sprinters who do well off less yardage now had a large yardage base when they were younger (not necessarily true but at least it would be win win).
He’s had two different swimmers go 18 in the 50 the past two years…
Long Course….they are NO where!
Brett and Shaune Fraser and Ryan Lochte were all 48.5 or better 100 freestylers long course, and all of them could go 1:47 or better in the 200 free. What’s more is that none of them were recruited as sprint freestylers. Brett Fraser was recruited as a backstroker and didn’t even make the conference team his freshman year. Shaune Fraser was a 200 fly/200 IMmer, and Ryan Lochte was recruited as a middle-distance/distance freestyler who became a backstroke/IM/everything swimmer. Dressel is their first blue-chip sprint recruit, and they’ve already proven they can make him faster.
Don’t forget the swimmers he had while he was at Bolles, ex. Gustavo Borges (Olympic and World Championship medalist, South American Record holder and later SCM world record holder, but I think that last part was after he represented Bolles).
Why do 20 x 400s? Is this a return to the 80s?
Agree, not sure any Olympic Champions of the 50 and 100 have done that much yardage, volume of work, whatever. At least none that I can think of in the last 30 years! Don’t think Troy has had sprinters be successful in the 50 and 100 at the world or olympic level doing this work either.
I seem to remember reading about a Alexandr Popov doing some extremely long set on a fast interval in the earlier part of his career (early 90’s, ca 93-94). Since I do not have access to the material where I read the set that he did I am not going write it in here, but it rivals the set that they did at UF both in distance and probably on a interval basis as well. I seem to remember the Popov as a pretty good sprint, couple of world records in the 50 & 100 free as well as Olympic Gold medals and World Championships.
Oh, I forgot about Gustavo Borges (and a few others, sorry for not putting in everybody’s names), that swam under Troy at Bolles School. Won a couple of Olympic and World Championship medals and was part of a Bolles HS relay that 2:59.9 back in 1991.
I am not say that Troy is a sprint coach to produces a ton a sprinters, but that he has and can coach swimmers to swim very fast in short events as well.
Ex. UF won the 200 Free Relay at the women’s 2010 NCAA championships.
The 20x400s is a set that EVERYONE on the Florida team does together ONCE A YEAR at the start of the summer long course season. They have done this set for years, and everyone who has come up through the program has done it. The sky is not falling. Florida is not Mission Viejo circa 1984.
Santana will have to swim PanAms games in two months.I will not be surprised if he don’t break 50s in 100 and 23s in 50 right now.
Dressel body physique is very similar of Santana training partner Felipe Ribeiro.Lean and muscular.
Both these guys are amazingly talented. Let’s not forget Dressel has already ventured into the 48 club. The time off in 2014 I believe in the short term hurt his speed a bit, but in the long term will prove to be a smart move to take a break from all the swimming. I make a bold prediction the Dressel will make the 2016 Olympic team and will be swimming both the 50 and 100 where he’ll face Santana again.
Olympic team in the 50? I’m not so sure. He’ll have to beat both Adrian and Ervin. Just two years ago Adrian was 21.4 and I think last year Ervin went 21.5. I don’t see Dressel beating either of them.