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Thursday, March 28, 2024
<p>Florida's Caeleb Dressel reacts after winning the 100-yard freestyle at the NCAA men's swimming and diving championships Saturday, March 26, 2016, in Atlanta. The initials on his face are in honor of a former teacher. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)</p>

Florida's Caeleb Dressel reacts after winning the 100-yard freestyle at the NCAA men's swimming and diving championships Saturday, March 26, 2016, in Atlanta. The initials on his face are in honor of a former teacher. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

As the NCAA Championship wrapped up this past week, the Gators men’s swimming and diving team found themselves in a familiar place.

The Gators, under head coach Gregg Troy, have finished third at the NCAA Championship meet three out of the past four seasons.

And despite not being able to make the hurdle over another third place finish, Troy and the rest of the Gators men’s swimming team remain optimistic moving forward.

“There was a commitment last year this time that those guys wanted to be even better,” Troy said. “I think we closed the line a lot. The guys feel good about the future.”

One swimmer who the Gators will turn to next season will be Caeleb Dressel. Florida will hope to use Dressel — whose six national titles are just one away from tying Ryan Lochte’s program record — as the benchmark for the younger Gators next season.

“He attracts people that are like him,” Troy said. “He brings their level of performance up. It’s a direct result of his training, it’s a direct result of his attitude, it’s a direct result to his commitment to the team.”

Troy believes it’s possible that Dressel — who won three national titles this past week in Indianapolis — will break Lochte’s record next season.

Dressel had a dominant performance in Indianapolis, winning all three of his individual events. In the 100-yard freestyle event, Dressel’s time of 40-seconds-flat broke his own American record. He also set a new NCAA record in the 100-yard butterfly (43.58) and won his trademark 50-yard freestyle event with a pool record time of 18.23.

“Caeleb Dressel is obviously one of the best swimmers in the world,” Troy said. “For his 100 freestyle the last day — to do what he did at 40-flat — [is] something that’s almost unheard of.”

Moving forward, the Gators have a plethora of young talent to make themselves viable for continued success. This past week, current freshman Chandler Bray — who competed in his first NCAA meet — saw improvement at the highest level.

Bray, along with Jack Blyzinskyj, Mark Szaranek and Dressel, broke the program record in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:23.08, which was good for fifth place. Also, Bray attributed to the Gators eighth place finish in the 400 medley relay.

“We aren’t third [place] if it isn’t for a guy like Chandler Bray standing up and swimming the relay legs,” Troy said. “His morning swims were good. His evening swims were equal. His performances are really key to what we did.”

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A challenge for the Gators next season will be to qualify more swimmers at the NCAA meet next season. The Gators, who qualified 16 swimmers this past week, were two or more swimmers short of other top programs.

“There hasn’t been a team that has won the NCAA meet since I’ve been here, I believe, that didn’t have 18 qualifiers, and we’re only qualifying 16, “Troy said. “So we got a couple less bullets.”

Moving forward, if the Gators want to improve, they must take the load off of Dressel, who went up to the blocks more than any swimmer from top finishers California and Texas.

That task, however, will be a difficult one.

“We have to either hit the mark a little better with all our bullets, or we need to get a few more bullets,” Troy said. “That’s a function of recruiting. It’s a function of time of being third.”

And just as the season ends, the work begins. Swimmers will train. Coaches will recruit. And the men’s program will continue to search for ways to finish above third place and capture its first national title since 1984.

As for any coach or team, the ultimate goal is to end the season atop the standings, alone in first place. Although Troy is proud of the team’s accomplishments this season, he hopes the team continues to improve and sets standards high.

“As coaches we can set up the dynamics, set up the parameters, but the culture has to be one where you’re looking at the top,” he said.

“We’re certainly pleased with the season. You can never sneeze at third. By the same token, that certainly isn’t the goal.”

Contact Sean Denison at sdenison@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @seandenison.

Florida's Caeleb Dressel reacts after winning the 100-yard freestyle at the NCAA men's swimming and diving championships Saturday, March 26, 2016, in Atlanta. The initials on his face are in honor of a former teacher. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

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