Trenton’s Apple wins second gold medal at Olympics

Trenton native Zach Apple swam the final leg of the 4x100 medley relay Sunday night, helping the U.S. team capture a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew, Caeleb Dressel and Apple set a new world record time of 3:26.78 in the event. The old record of 3:27.28 had stood since 2009. The United States has won gold in the 4x100 medley relay at every Olympics since 1960.

Apple swam the freestyle leg of the relay in 46.95 seconds. The Americans trailed after Andrew swam the breaststroke but regained the lead with Dressel, who won his fifth gold of the games, swimming the butterfly.

“I had confidence in Caeleb that he was going to give me a lead,” Apple told reporters. “I didn’t know how fast he was going, but I knew he was giving his best effort and that’s what I was going to do as well. And it worked out.”

Apple, an Edgewood High School graduate who swam in college at Auburn and Indiana, won a gold medal Sunday with the 4x100 relay team, swimming the last and fastest leg on the team. On Tuesday, he swam in the 100-meter freestyle semifinals, falling short of advancing to the finals, and for the 4x200 freestyle relay team that placed fourth.