Four Swimmers, One Relay to Compete in Finals

Four Swimmers, One Relay to Compete in Finals

Saturday, March 24, 2018 | Men's Swimming & Diving

Dressel, Switkowski, Szaranek to swim in A finals; Baqlah to swim in B final

By: Katie Callahan

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – For the second night in a row, Florida sends four swimmers and one relay to finals.

Caeleb Dressel is set to compete in the 100 free after earning the top seed with a pool record time of 40.68 in the prelim. Khader Baqlah earned a spot in the consolation final after his personal-best time of 42.25.

Mark Szaranek finished fourth overall in the 200 breast prelim, putting him in a great position to score in the championship final tonight. The senior posted a time of 1:52.08, less than three-tenths of a second off his seed time.

Jan Switkowski continued his great meet with a school record in the 200 fly. He finished second overall with a personal-best time of 1:40.13 to race in his third individual championship final of the meet. He surpassed Marcin Cieslak's previous school record of 1:40.19, which has stood since 2012.

The 400 free relay of Baqlah, Maxime Rooney, Christoph Margotti and Dressel finished fourth overall with a time of 2:47.52 to move on to tonight's championship final.

Heats of the 1650 free will begin at 3:45 p.m. CT, with the final heat to run at the start of finals. Saturday'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

200 back
Clark Beach put up a career-best time of 1:41.06 in heat 2 of the 200 back, good for third in the heat and 23rd overall. The 23rd place finish is the best individual race finish at NCAAs for the freshman.

100 free
Dressel earned the top seed in the championship final after posting a time of 40.68 in the 100 free prelim. The senior broke the pool record with his time, almost a half second better than Nathan Adrian's 41.10 from 2011.

Baqlah earned a spot in consolation final of the 100 free after posting a career-best time of 42.25 in heat 4. That put him second in the heat and 16th overall, in a solid position to score valuable points for the Gators.

Maxime Rooney finished 28th overall with a time of 42.94, while Bayley Main rounded out the Gators in 33rd with a personal-best time of 43.39.

200 breast
Szaranek posted the fourth fastest time overall in the 200 breast prelim to move on to tonight's championship final. The swim of 1:52.08 put him second in the final heat.

Grant Sanders finished 36th overall and third in heat 1 with his personal-best time of 1:56.39. Alex Lebed followed in 44th place, recording a time of 1:58.21 in his final individual event of the meet.

200 fly
Switkowski set a new school record en route to his third individual championship final appearance of the meet. His time of 1:40.13 was the fastest in the heat and second fastest overall.

400 free relay
The 400 free relay of Baqlah, Rooney, Margotti and Dressel finished fourth overall in the prelim with a time of 2:47.52. Dressel's anchor split of 40.15 was the fastest split in the history of the event and put the Gators in a great spot for tonight's final.

Baqlah led off with a split of 42.20, followed by Rooney's 42.48 on the second leg and Margotti's 42.69 on the third leg of the race.

Gators in Finals: