ISTANBUL – With an American record in two events, Clay High graduate Caeleb Dressel, now a junior at the University of Florida, is answering the preemptive talks about his swimming prowess after just one day of competition at the FINA World Championships being held July 14-30 in Istanbul.

Dressel, with three U.S. nationals titles a month ago and one second place finish earning his ticket to Istanbul, blasted to American records in the 100 free with his leadoff leg of the gold medal 4 x 100 relay squad after shredding the American record for the 50 butterfly with a 22.76 effort in the semifinals. Dressel’s semifinal best set up a finals’ showdown with Ukraine’s Andrii Govorov who had the second fastest split at 22.77. Govorov improved from his 2015 World Championship ninth place finish at 23.49.

“It feels good to get the first swim out of the way,” said Dressel, an a Swim Radio interview after the 50 fly preliminaries. “My nerves were up there a little bit, but I’m happy.”

Dressel, who in the prelims, raced against Olympic 100 fly gold medalist and former Bolles teammate Joseph Schooling of Singapore and the University of Texas, finished as second fastest behind Govorov’s 22.92 with a 22.97 split with Schooling third at 23.05.

“I didn’t know Joseph was in my heat until we were both in the ready room,” said Dressel. “It’s always fun to race against the best.” In the semifinal round, Dressel bested Govorov with Schooling finishing as the fifth qualifier at 22.93 with the top five qualifiers all under 23 seconds. American Tim Phillips also qualified in seventh place at 23.25.

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The 50 fly final is set for Mon., July 24 at 8 p.m.

World Record 22.43 MUNOZ PEREZ Rafael ESP Malaga (ESP) 5 APR 2009

Championship Record 22.67 CAVIC Milorad SRB Rome (ITA) 27 JUL 2009

World Junior Record 23.39 LI Zhuhao CHN Beijing (CHN) 29 SEP 2015

In the finals will be 2015 finalists, all with splits over 23 seconds, Govorov, who finished ninth at 23.49; Nicholas Santos of Brazil who was sixth in 23.41; Schooling, who was fifth in 23.40; Phillips, who was 23rd in 23.91 and Benjamin Proud of Great Britian, who was 11th in 23.58. Missing are defending champion Florent Manaudou of France, who won in 23.15 and runnerup Laszlo Cseh of Hungary who finished at 23.32, both who failed to qualify.

In the 50 butterfly finals on Mon., July 24, Dressel finished fourth in 22.87 behind Benjamin Proud of Great Britain who won in 22.75; Nicholas Santos of Brazil, second in 22.79 and Andrii Govorov of Ukraine, third in 22.84. Bolles grad Joseph Schooling of Singapore was fifth in 22.95.

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In the 4 x 100 relay, Dressel crushed the field with a 47.26 opening leg to lead the Americans to a nailbiting win over Brazil for the gold medal. Dressel record-breaking run eclipsed a record of 47.33 set in 2009 by Dave Walters.

After Dressel’s opening leg, teammattes Townley Haas and Blake Pieroni held off a late charge by Brazil to give Olympic gold medalist Nathan Adrian the anchor leg. With Brazil’s Bruno Fratus surging in the second 50, Adrian was able to narrowly give the Americans a 3:10.06 championship win. Fratus outswam Adrian with a 47.18 split to Adrian’s 47.25, but Dressel’s leadoff was enough cushion for the win.

The American women’s 4 x 100 relay also won with a 3:31.72 effort fueled by another American record leadoff leg, this time from Mallory Comerford at 52.59. The Americans, with Olympians Kelsi Worrell, Katie Ledecky and Simona Manuel handling the rest of the relay legs, overcame a world record 51.71 opening leg by Sweden to beat Australia for the win. Sweden wound up fifth.