Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Karl Ortegon.
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- Caeleb Dressel, Florida – 18.23
- Peter Holoda, Auburn – 19.17
- Michael Chadwick, Mizzou – 19.23
Caeleb Dressel won this one before his head came up off the dive. With the rest of the field at his hips by the time he surfaced for his first arm stroke, he only extended his lead at the turn. 18.23 destroys his 18.39 from this morning, which in and of itself destroyed NCAA, American, and U.S. Open records.
While Katie Ledecky is capable of making the world’s top distance freestylers look slow or tired, Dressel made the rest of this field look absolutely pedestrian. Seeing someone that far ahead of the best sprinters in the SEC is utterly amazing– Dressel beat 2nd place Peter Holoda of Auburn by almost a FULL second. He actually did beat Michael Chadwick, a likely candidate for the United States 400 free relay team at the next Olympics, by an exact full second.
As Dressel took off his goggles and cap and reveled in his victory, the rest of the field finally touched the wall. Kristian Gkolomeev of Alabama, who tied for the NCAA crown in 2014, was 19.25 for 4th behind Chadwick. Gkolomeev’s teammate Brett Walsh was 8th in this final.
Florida got some more points here with Corey Main‘s 5th place finish. Tennessee’s Kyle Decoursey turned in a 6th place finish here, while Auburn’s Kyle Darmody grabbed 7th.
what was his 25 meter split
11.625 seconds.
8.55
Oh no…
While I’ve begun believing athletes/coaches when they say they were ‘unshaved’/’untapered’ when they have huge breakthroughs, I’ve also started believing that most of the times, it dooms the athlete to not performing any faster when they do shave/taper.
Although it is definitely not the only example, I can only remember one at the moment: Cody Miller’s 59.5 last summer at a Grand Prix meet (and then he barely broke a minute if he did at World Champs). I can also think of an exception: David Nolan’s 200 IM at PAC12s where he broke Lochte’s American record by .01 and then smashed it later at NCAAs
Let’s be honest… being under the right circumstances is much more important than whether or not you shave. It doesn’t make that much of a difference.
Dressel doesn’t appear to be a very hairy dude (though he’s blonde so it’s harder to tell) — so I don’t think shaving is big for him. But let’s not poo-poo shaving overall — we all knew the dude who shaved off a “sweater”, and it can make a very big difference.
I watched the video, it’s not as if he’s looks like Chewbacca from knees down.. Incredible nonetheless, well done Mr. Dressel.
It’s not the hair, it’s the dead skin and the feel you get from shaving down that really make the difference
And Mcevoy Swan a 47 mid unshaved Phelps swam a 50.fly using one arm amd with weights. This he wasn’t rested shaved story fools who? Amanzing swim that is it just it
Agreed that all the gamesmanship gets to be groan-inducing and eye-roll-worthy at times. But he’s not saying he didn’t rest, just that he didn’t shave. That’s not a guarantee he’s gonna go any faster. But if he didn’t put a razor to his legs… he didn’t shave.
This guy is looking quick! It sounds like he will also be fast over the 100 lcm. Great news for team USA.
Lets not forget that Cielo didnt have the luxury of getting to use a backplate on the start. Bodysuit debate aside, im fully convinced Cielo would have had a faster record back in ’07 if he had the chance to use a backplate
Back plates have been proven to not make much of a difference in starting times (time to 15m is usually the best indicator). In fact i saw somewhere the side plates made a bigger difference. This is probably due to the fact that the back leg doesn’t provide much propulsion on the jump, just serves to start the momentum and shift it to your front leg.
I think most swimmers will contend that bodysuits have a bigger impact than the blocks.
Plus a comparison of their splits shows that the biggest difference in their swims was on the second 25.
I have read differently. The study linked below showed that the OSB11 (first block with the wedge) reduced time to 7.5m by 0.2s (interestingly, the same margin by which Caeleb beat Cielo’s record). With the greater horizontal velocity, one can assume that 15m time would also be reduced by at least 0.2s, possibly more. I’ve read the study you’re remembering that showed the side handles had a bigger impact. Whether it’s the handles or the wedge (my guess is that this will vary greatly by individual swimmer) doesn’t really make much of an impact, as Cielo didn’t have those either.
http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/swim/biomechs/biel.htm
SHOW US THE PITS, CAELEB.
Truthering this hard.
Same. I’m calling shenanigans at the top of my lungs.