Caeleb Dressel’s long journey back to international competition got off to a slow start Tuesday at the USA Swimming National Championships when he failed to initially qualify for the finals in the 100-meter freestyle.
The top seed and U.S. record holder in the event finished 29th in preliminaries, fading in the back half of the race and touching the wall in 49.42 seconds—1.75 seconds off his entry time and 2.46 seconds off his U.S. record.
Dressel did end up getting into the ‘C’ final—the third out of three—after others scratched and opened a spot for him. The 26-year-old scheduled to participate in it Monday night, but because Dressel did not qualify for the race based off his preliminary time, he won’t be eligible to qualify for the U.S. world championship team for the event no matter what time he posts.
