Gators Send Four Swimmers, One Relay to Finals

Gators Send Four Swimmers, One Relay to Finals

Friday, March 23, 2018 | Men's Swimming & Diving

Caeleb Dressel, Jan Switkowski, Mark Szaranek & Khader Baqlah to swim in finals tonight

By: Katie Callahan

Prelim Results

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The no. 3 Gators are sending four individuals and one relay to Friday night's finals session.

Caeleb Dressel will swim in the A final of the 100 fly after earning the top seed with a pool record of 44.37 in the prelim. He will be joined by classmate Jan Switkowski, whose career-best time of 45.09 put him fifth overall.

Mark Szaranek will compete in the B final of the 400 IM after posting a time of 3:39.83 in the prelim.

Khader Baqlah rounds out the individuals competing in the finals. He recorded a swim of 1:32.53, good for sixth overall.

The 200 medley relay of Michael Taylor, Chandler Bray, Szaranek and Dressel finished third overall in the prelim to guarantee points and earn a spot in the championship final. Dressel recorded the fastest ever freestyle split, going 17.30 as the relay's anchor.

400 IM
Szaranek led the Gators in the 400 IM, placing fourth in heat 5 and 11th overall with a time of 3:39.83 to move on to tonight's B final.

Grant Sanders finished 24th overall, his best place of the NCAAs thus far, with a time of 3:42.92. Alex Lebed rounded out the Florida swimmers in the race, going 3:46.30 to finish third in heat 2 of the event.

100 fly
Dressel and Switkowski both move on to tonight's championship final in the 100 fly after putting up strong prelim swims.

Dressel earned the top seed after going 44.37 in heat 1 of the event, setting a new school record in the process. He owns the American, NCAA, US Open and UF record in the 100 fly with a time of 43.58.

Switkowski goes into tonight's final as the fifth seed after posting a career-best time of 45.09 in heat 5.

200 free
Baqlah earned his spot in tonight's 200 free championship final after posting a time of 1:32.53 to win heat 4. The sophomore was third for a majority of the race, but turned on another gear in the final 50 to touch the wall first.

Maxime Rooney finished 21st overall and sixth in heat 5 with a time of 1:34.39, while Ben Lawless placed 40th overall with a swim of 1:38.52.

100 back
Michael Taylor led Florida in the 100 back, recording a swim of 46.23 in heat 2 of the 100 back to put him 24th overall. Bayley Main and Clark Beach followed Taylor, going 33rd and 36th, respectively.

Main posted a swim of 46.96, while Beach, in his first individual NCAA race of his career, swam a 47.20 in heat 1.

200 medley relay
The 200 medley relay of Taylor, Bray, Szaranek and Dressel finished third overall in the preliminary session with a time of 1:23.24 to earn a spot in the A final on Friday.

Dressel's fastest ever freestyle relay split of 17.30 moved the Gators up from fifth place to second in the heat and put the Gators in good position for the championship final.

Taylor recorded a backstroke split of 21.63, followed by Bray's breaststroke split of 23.86. Szaranek had a strong fly, recording a split of 20.45.

Friday's finals will begin at 6 p.m. CT and will be streamed live on ESPN3. Live results can be found at the Meet Central

Gators in Finals