The first night of finals at the 2015 All-Florida Invitational took place in Gainesville at the University of Florida. Swimmers contested in the 500 free, 200 IM, and 50 free individually, with the 200 free relay and 400 medley relay book ending the session.
In a tight race to the finish in the men’s 500 free, Gator teammates Mitch D’Arrigo and Pawel Werner were separated by just 2 tenths of a second. In the end, it was Werner taking the win in 4:24.55 to D’Arrigo’s 4:24.75. In the women’s version of this event, Taylor Katz hit the wall first with a 4:50.31.
Caeleb Dressel took a win in one of his individual events, but it wasn’t one we see him in too often. Dressel posted a 1:47.87 to win the men’s 200 IM over teammate Mark Szaranek (1:48.36). With just a 4 minute break between events, Dressel then clocked a 20.42 in the 50 free that was good for 2nd. Winning that event was Corey Main in 20.18.
Those times for Dressel are a significant improvement from his starting point from last season. He was a full 5 seconds better today in the 200 IM than he was in 2014. Here’s a comparison with last season:
| 2014 Prelims | 2014 Finals | 2015 Prelims | 2015 Finals | |
| 200 IM | 1:52.10 | 1:52.23 | 1:50.47 | 1:47.07 |
| 50 Free | 20.24 | 20.53 | 19.80 | 20.42 |
In the women’s 200 IM, senior Ashlee Linn took the win over her freshman teammate Hannah Burns. Linn finished in 2:02.99, exactly one second ahead of Burns (2:03.99). Natalie Hinds came up with a win in the 50, clocking a 23.00.
To finish off the night for the women, Florida Gulf Coast’s Barabara Caraballo, Katie Armitage, Christina Elmgreen, and Katie Latham captured the 400 medley relay title. Their relay consisted of 3 freshman and one sophomore. They could be even more dangerous later on if they add their top freshman Elise Haan to that relay.
Full results from tonight’s session can be found here.
That’s not a picture of Caeleb
Dressel will break 18.47 this season. Count on it
Irish Ringer- you must be knew to swimswam because there is something called WINTER NATIONALS, and it’s in long course this year.
A unrelated, but since it’s coming up soon…
My men US nationals predictions:
50 Free: Adrian 21.32 AM, Dressel 21.45
100 Free: Dressel 47.72, Adrian 47.92
200 Free: Phelps 1:44.64, Lochte 1:45.12
400 Free: Jaeger 3:43.87 AM, Dwyer 3:45.92
1500 Free: Jaeger 14:41.70, McBroom 14:52.31
100 Back: Murphy 52.03, Grevers 52.52
200 Back: Murphy 1:53.10, Lochte 1:53.87
100 Breast: Cordes 58.58 AM, Andrew 59.34 WJR
200 Breast: Cordes 2:07.44 AM, Fink 2:09.96
100 Fly: Phelps 50.21, Shields 50.83
200 Fly: Phelps 1:52.43, Conger 1:52.95
200 IM: Phelps: 1:53.76 WR, Lochte 1:54.89
400 IM: Kalisz: 4:09.23, Clary: 4:10.45
Wow, you are going to have several opportunities over the next 10 months to post these predictions, but you couldn’t wait and decided to throw them on a training meet for Dressel?
The second 200 breaststroker is going to be faster. Prenot, Miller, Licon, Whitley, etc. should all be under 2:10.
Some of these are a bit fast (Phelps 1:53 IM) but I’ll definitely acknowledge the possibility. I have to draw the line at Conger going a 1:52 200 fly, however.
By the way swimswam, if you want that more people listen to your new show in podcasts, then you should let the article on the homepage of the site more than 8 or 9 hours. It has disappeared very quickly. You should even create a dedicated place for that show on the homepage so that it can stay until the next episode. Overall, the turnover of news is well too fast. Let much longer what you think is more important, otherwise a lot of people unfortunately miss them. I don’t think all articles have the same value and the same importance. Anyway I continue to think you need a second column of news. Just my opinion.
What podcast?
Good points, I hope you are emailing them directly too and not just leaving all suggestions to be sifted through in comment threads..
I know it’s just a training meet but every time I see Dressel swim a 200 IM…. 🙄
Good grief Bobo. The kid is allowed to swim something other than a 50/100 free.
Nice job out of FGCU as well, GREAT splits on relays, Armitage is already way ahead of where she was last year
Those are pretty good times for a 4 minute turnaround for Dressel. The most impressive swim of the night though was the 47.0 leadoff on the 400 MR by Jack Blyzinskyj. That’s WAY ahead of where he was last year.