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Who's the boss now? Schooling upstaged by Dressel as NCAA career ends with a whimper

SINGAPORE – National swimmer Joseph Schooling crashed out of his final National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Swimming Championships on Sunday (March 25) with a whimper, as the 22-year-old ended the meet in Minnesota without winning a medal.

National swimmer Joseph Schooling at the 2016 Rio Olympics. REUTERS

National swimmer Joseph Schooling at the 2016 Rio Olympics. REUTERS

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SINGAPORE – National swimmer Joseph Schooling crashed out of his final National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Swimming Championships on Sunday (March 25) with a whimper, as the 22-year-old ended the meet in Minnesota without winning a medal.

Competing in his last individual event, the 200-yard butterfly, the University of Texas senior finished 26th in Sunday’s preliminaries in 1min 43.34sec. While Schooling missed out on the final, Singaporean teammate Quah Zheng Wen earned his spot in the ‘A’ final after finishing eighth in the heats with his time of 1:41.00. Quah, who was swimming for the University of California, Berkeley, placed sixth in the final after clocking 1:40.70.

Despite vowing to end his collegiate career on a high, Schooling – who turned professional on Sunday – found himself struggling from the get-go. After finishing joint-15th in the 50-yard freestyle heats, he was trounced in his pet event, the 100-yard butterfly, by former Bolles teammate Caeleb Dressel. The University of Florida senior claimed gold in a new NCAA and American record of 42.80sec, while Schooling was fourth in 44.68sec.

He did not have better luck with the Texas Longhorns relays teams, as they finished fifth and ninth respectively in the men’s 200- and 400-yard medley relays, before ending their campaign with fourth spot in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

This was the first time that Schooling had not won medals at the NCAAs. In 2015 and 2016, he won both 100- and 200-yard butterfly titles, before adding a silver and bronze respectively in the 100-yard fly and 50-yard free last year.

Despite the disappointment, there were still celebrations for Schooling and his Texas teammates on Sunday, as the Texas Longhorns clinched the overall team title – their fourth in a row, and 14th overall – with 449 points. University of California, Berkeley and Indiana University finished second and third with 437.5 and 422 points respectively.

Florida Gator Dressel was crowned the Swimmer of the Meet on Sunday for the third year running after an impressive showing at the NCAAs that saw the 21-year-old claiming four gold medals, including two individual titles in the 50-yard free and 100-yard fly in NCAA and American record times.

Dressel, who stormed onto the international scene last year at the Budapest world championships after winning seven gold medals, is gunning for more when he turns professional after the NCAAs. The American sensation will be competing in the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo, before aiming to defend his titles at the 2019 world championships in Korea a year later. He is expected to be a strong contender for gold medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where he will face reigning 100m fly champion Schooling in the pool again.

“Long course (metres) is where the big boys come out to play,” said Dressel in an interview with Swimming World Magazine.

“I’m happy with the short course, but we’re still on track for some good long course swimming.”

Already the American is sounding a warning to his rivals, as he added: “I feel like I’m just getting started in the sport.”

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