Dressel Runner-Up in 100 Free Final, Qualifies for Rio

Dressel's time in the 100 free final Thursday night qualified him to swim both the 100 free and 4x100 free relay in Rio.

Dressel Runner-Up in 100 Free Final, Qualifies for Rio

Thursday, June 30, 2016 | Men's Swimming & Diving, Olympics

The 2016 Summer Olympics will be Dressel's first

By: Layne Weitzel

LOOKING AHEAD: GATORS IN PRELIMINARIES
FRIDAY, JULY 1
Name	Event	Seed (Qualifying Time)
Caeleb Dressel	50 Free		2 (21.53)
Brad deBorde	50 Free		17 (22.37)
Elizabeth Beisel	800 Free		21 (8:39.76)
Kahra Williams	800 Free		34 (8:42.65)
Autumn Finke	800 Free		79 (8:49.43)
Ryan Lochte	100 Fly		5 (51.55)
Caeleb Dressel	100 Fly		20 (52.96)
Ben Kennedy	100 Fly		95 (54.56)
Elizabeth Beisel	200 Back		3 (2:08.33)
Sydney Sell	200 Back		42 (2:13.23)
Alyssa Yambor-Maul	200 Back		91 (2:15.56)

OMAHA, Neb. -- Caeleb Dressel doesn't look back on his 2012 U.S Olympic Team Trials performance too fondly, calling it "horrible."

Perhaps becoming an Olympian in 2016 will help him forget that.

Dressel clinched a trip to Rio Thursday night, coming in second place in the 100 free finals. His time of 48.23, which was .30 seconds quicker than his semifinals time, qualified him to compete in the Olympics' 100 free individual race and the 4x100 free relay.

The 2016 Games will be Dressel's first Olympics.

Nathan Adrian, the defending gold medalist in the 100 free, won the event at 47.72.

Dressel joins 11 other Gator swimmers who have already qualified for the Olympics: Ryan Lochte (United States), Conor Dwyer (United States), Elizabeth Beisel (United States), Mitch D'Arrigo (Italy), Hilda Luthersdottir (Iceland), Corey Main (New Zealand), Sebastien Rousseau (South Africa), Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez (Spain), Dan Wallace (Great Britain), Jan Switkowski (Poland) and Pawel Werner (Poland).

Conor Dwyer also swam the 100 free final but finished eighth at 49.13. He has already qualified for Rio in the 400 free, 200 free and 4x200 free relay.

Ryan Lochte, the final Gator to swim during Day 5's evening session, competed in the 200 IM second semifinal heat. Lochte swam a 1:56.71, fastest in his heat and of all 16 semifinalists. He will advance to the 200 IM final Friday night.

The trials will continue Thursday with Day 6. Before scratches, nine Gators are scheduled to compete in four events -- men's 50 free, women's 800 free, men's 100 butterfly and women's 200 back.

Each day of trials will begin with preliminary heats at 11 a.m. EST and conclude with event finals and semifinals at 8 p.m. EST. Estimated start times for each preliminary event can be found here, and the event schedule for the entire meet can be found on the USA Swimming website.

Prelims will be broadcast live daily on the NBC Sports app and online and on edited tape-delay on the NBC Sports Network. Event semifinals and finals will air live on NBC and online. The full TV schedule is available here.

FloridaGators.com will recap the Gators' performance after each day of trials. Follow along on Twitter at @GatorsSwimDv, @GatorsOlympics and @USASwimming, and check out the hashtags #GatorsAlways and #SwimTrials16 for more immediate coverage.

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