McKeon Wraps Up Two Top Seeds In Melbourne

2018 AUSTRALIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, October 25th – Saturday, October 27th
• Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre
• Heats at 10am local (9:30am Sat.)/Finals at 6:30pm local (4:30pm Sat.)
• SCM
• Qualifying meet for 2018 Short Course World Championships squad
• Aussie SC World C’ships Selection Criteria
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Entry List
• Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
• Live Results
• Live Stream

Marion’s Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers settled for silver in last night’s 100m freestyle final, with fellow Olympian Cameron McEvoy topping the podium. However, the 19-year-old ‘lizard king’ has set himself up as a gold medal contender in the 200m free, taking the top seed in a time of 1:44.35.

Chalmers led a cluster of 1:44-point athletes, with Bond’s Alexander Graham next in line in 1:44.73 and Melbourne Vicentre’s Jack Gerrard also in the mix with a morning swim of 1:44.84.  Elijah Winnington, who notched a new World Junior Record last night in the 400m freestyle en route to silver, took the 4th seed this morning in this 200m free in 1:44.89.

For his part, McEvoy is lurking as the 6th seed with a mark of 1:45.06, ready to slide into a podium spot come tonight’s final.

Commonwealth Games champion Ariarne Titmus looks primed to earn another piece of hardware after her 800m free silver last night. This morning the Tasmanian teen dropped a 400m free of 4:05.72 to slide into the pole position ahead of TSS Aquatics’ Maddie Gough. Gough touched in 4:06.61 to be in a lane next to Titmus, while open water swimmer Kareena Lee rounded out the top 3 in 4:07.09.

A battle is brewing in the women’s 100m back, with last night’s 200m champion Emily Seebohm paving the way in 57.55. She won the title last year in a swift 56.80, so the veteran will look to turn on the engines to delve into sub-57 territory when the medal is on the line.

18-year-old Minna Atherton earned runner-up status last night behind Seebohm in that 200 and sits solidly as the 2nd seed in the sprint after her morning effort of 57.61. But another teen, Youth Olympic Games gold medalist Kaylee McKeown is also in the mix with her prelim mark of 58.72.

Madi Wilson and Holly Barratt are both looking to move up in tonight’s final, having collected morning swims of 59.28 and 59.30, respectively.

Seebohm also raced in a timed final this morning, as the 26-year-old nailed the winning time of 59.30 in the 100m IM. Splitting 12.29/14.58/17.65/14.78, Seebohm scored the only sub-minute time of the field, in fact the only sub 1:01 time of the field.

Carla Buchanan was next in line with a silver medal-garnering time of 1:01.71, while Melbourne Vicentre’s Sian Whittaker took bronze in 1:02.29.

David Morgan repeated as the men’s 50m fly champion, taking the title this year in 23.04. That’s .03 faster than his winning mark of 23.07 from 2017. Cameron Jones touched in 23.20 for silver, while Edward Marks took bronze in 23.35.

Additional Top Seeds:

• Olympic medalist Emma McKeon staked her claim on the women’s 100m fly, stopping the clock in 58.36 to capture the top seed. McKeon also looks good to win the women’s 50m free, capturing the top seed in that event as well with a morning swim of 24.29, the only sub-25 second mark of the entire field.
• St. Peters Western Mitch Larkin topped the en’s 200m backstroke, nailing a time that already beat the winning mark at this same meet last year. Larkin leads in 1:52.38, the only sub-1:53 effort of the field.
• The men’s 100m breast saw 19-year-old Zac Stubblety-Cook race to the center lane for tonight’s final, capturing a time of 58.60.
• Bond’s Jenna Strauch and Nunawading’s Jessica Hansen are neck-and-neck heading into the women’s 200m breast final, with Strauch touching in 2:24.35 to Hansen’s 2:24.70.
• The men’s 200m IM saw Matthew Wilson cruise to the top spot in a morning effort of 1:54.87, but on-fire IMer Larkin is right where he wants to be as the 4th seed after a cruising 1:57.88 this morning.

The men’s 800m free will be recapped with tonight’s final.