Shayna Jack & Jamie Jack Steal 50 Free Spotlight On Day Four Of 2024 QLD Championships

2024 QUEENSLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS

• December 14th – December 20th
• Brisbane Aquatic Centre
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• SwimSwam Preview
• Draft Entries
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
• Live Results

Day four of the 2024 Queensland Championships unfolded from Brisbane with the Jack siblings taking the men’s and women’s 50m freestyle state titles.

In the women’s 19&O 50m free, 26-year-old Shayna Jack got her hand on the wall in a time of 24.96, the sole outing of the field under the 25-second barrier.

Visiting Japanese ace Rikako Ikee, who has been training at Griffith University this past year, registered 25.21 for silver while St. Andrew’s Chloe Rowe-Hagans rounded out the podium in 25.70.

Jack was slightly quicker in the morning heats, putting up a top-seeded mark of 24.94. The St. Peters Western athlete owns a lifetime best of 23.99 in the splash n’ dash, a result she registered at this year’s Australian Olympic Trials. She placed 8th in the event in Paris in a time of 24.39.

Brother Jamie Jack followed up his 100m freestyle personal best from last night with a speedy 21.66 to take the men’s 19&O 50m free race tonight.

That held off Thomas Nowakowski of USC Spartans and Jezze Gorman of St. Andrew’s, with the former snagging silver in 22.21 to the latter’s 22.26 for bronze.

Tonight represents just the third time Jack has been sub-22, with the time checking in as a new lifetime best. Entering this competition, Jack’s PB rested at the 21.95 turned in last month at the Nudgee College LC Preparation Meet. Then on day one he led off the SPW 200m free relay in 21.74.

There were some notable swims within the age group set as well, including another head-turning effort at the hands of 12-year-old Grayson Coulter of New Zealand.

Coulter tried the boys’ 50m free on for size where he ripped a lifetime best of 24.53 for the gold.

That crushed the former Queensland All Comers Record of 25.16 Japan’s Iori Takeno put on the books in 2022.

For perspective, the U.S. National Age Group Record of 11-12-year-old boys’ 50m freestyle stands at 24.98 from Ronald Dalmacio so Coulter’s outing was nearly half a second under that.

Look for a follow-up post detailing Coulter’s impressive performances at these Queensland Championships.

Additional Notes

• 18-year-old Hannah Casey of Bond topped the 18-year-old women’s 50m free podium in 25.57. A pair of Kiwis were next to the wall with Amelia Bray capturing silver in 25.70 and Milana Tapper earning bronze in 26.22.
• Somerville House Aquatics’ Joshua Conias posted 22.53 to take the boys’ 17-year-old 50m free. Conias is a rising sprint star who trains at the base of Olympian Cameron McEvoy.
• Lincoln Wearing of Chandler produced a new Queensland State Record en route to winning the boys’ 800m free. Wearing stopped the clock at 8:05.58 to beat the field by over 20 seconds, easily surpassing Olympian Sam Short‘s previous record of 8:10.55 from 2019 in the process.
• Visiting swimmer Yi Mi Chen of China topped the boys’ 16-year-old 800m free podium in 8:04.39. That scored a new Queensland All Comers Record, erasing the former benchmark of 8:07.61 Joshua Staples established 4 years ago.
• Already a multi-event medalist here, Bond’s 20-year-old Sienna Harben took the women’s 200mIM in 2:15.90 as one of two sub-2:20 swimmers. Joining her was 2023 World Championships bronze medalist Jenna Forrester who touched in 2:16.10, good enough for silver.
• Tea Tree Gully’s Brittany Castelluzzo continued her successful campaign, grabbing gold in the women’s 200m fly in 2:07.76 to win by over 2 seconds. That crushed her previous PB of 2:08.79 from the 2022 Australian Championships.
• Somerset’s Leny Grigor stole the spotlight in the boys’ 15-year-old breaststroke. The teen registered a time of 1:03.59 to beat the field by over 2 seconds. His time overtook the former Queensland All Comers Record of 1:03.97 Bryce Skea clocked 9 years ago.