Eleven current and former Gators are competing at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. The competition began on Sunday and runs until July 30.
Rising senior Caeleb Dressel headlines the list of UF swimmers participating. Dressel set two American records on Day 1 of the meet.
The Green Cove Springs, Florida, native’s relay time of 47.26 seconds helped Team USA edge out Brazil with an overall time of 3:10.06.
His other record came in the 50m butterfly. Dressel was clocked at 22.76 seconds, good for the best overall time on opening day.
However, Dressel fell to fourth place in the event’s final round on Monday with a time of 22.89 seconds.
Six other current Gators are competing in Budapest. Liliana Szilagyi (Hungary) is participating on the women’s side while Mark Szaranek (Great Britain), Jan Switkowski (Poland), Enzo Martinez-Scarpe (Uruguay) and Khader Baqlah (Jordan) are swimming in the men’s events.
The former Gators competing in the meet include Elizabeth Beisel (USA) and Hilda Luthersdottir (Iceland) for the women and Conor Dwyer (USA), Corey Main (New Zealand) and Carlos Omana (Venezuela) for the men.
Day 2 of the championships saw Switkowski and Baqlah finish 18th and 19th in the 200m freestyle, respectively. Luthersdottir finished 18th in the 100m breastroke.
Contact Andrew Huang at ahuang@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @AndrewJHuang.
Caeleb Dressel touches the wall at the end of his leg of the 400 meter freestyle relay during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
