McKeon, McKeown & McEvoy Wrangle Up Wins At Queensland Prep Meet

2022 QUEENSLAND LC PREPARATION MEET #1

The 2022 Queensland LC Prep Meet kicked off today from Brisbane, with the likes of Emma McKeon, Cody Simpson and Kaylee McKeown in the water.

Although this meet represents a qualifying opportunity for December’s Queensland Championships, many key athletes are just getting back into the long course groove after having taken some time off from a busy summer of World Championships and Commonwealth Games

As such, we’re not seeing anything too crazy, although it’s still significant to take note of the baseline times being put up by the swimmers over this two-day affair.

Although multi-Olympic champion McKeon opted out of the women’s 50m free, she did take on another bread-and-butter event of the 100m free.

28-year-old McKeon posted a winning effort of 54.36, topping the women’s 19+ field by nearly 2 solid seconds. Opening in 26.10 and closing in 28.26, McKeon looked smooth and in control en route to her victory.

Of note, in the 16-year-old category, Hannah Casey logged a decisive win of her own, stopping the clock in a speedy 56.63.

Casey, who represents Marist College, already took a treble of sprint victories earlier this year as a 15-year-old at the 2022 Australian Age Championships. At that meet, Casey logged times of 24.96 in the 50m free, 54.30 in the 100m free and 1:58.49 in the 200m free there in South Australia this past April.

McKeown hit a sub-1:00 time in the 100m backstroke, with the Olympian producing a time of 59.46. McKeown raced essentially uncontested, with only one other competitor in the 19+ category, but she still solidly split 28.99/30.47 to get the job done.

The Griffith University star also topped the podium in her age category’s 50m breast, getting to the wall in 32.87. That comfortably kept teammate Mikayla Smith in the silver medal position with a time of 33.70, while 26-year-old Kady Ibell rounded out the top 3 in 33.84,

Cameron McEvoy re-introduced himself after a one-year sabbatical with a victory in the 50m free. McEvoy, who now races for coach Tim Lane at Somerville House Aquatics, was the winner in 22.82 to get his long course season underway.

Griffith’s Clyde Lewis topped the men’s 200m fly field in a time of 2:02.19, beating teammates Bowen Gough and Brendon Smith who reaped silver and bronze, respectively. Gough snagged runner-up- status in 2:04.33 while Smith, the 400m IM bronze medalist in Tokyo, logged 2:05.24.

Lewis also topped the podium in the men’s 100m back in the same session. Splitting 27.60/28.97, Lewis registered a winning effort of 56.57, one of only two times under the 1:00 barrier in the 19+ category. Behind him was 19-year-old teammate Joshua Edwards-Smith who hit 57.05.

According to Swimming Australia’s results database, Lewis, formerly of Bond, owns lifetime bests of 1:58.96 from 2019 and 55.19 from 2016 in the 200m fly and 100m back, respectively.

Additional Notes

  • The men’s 100m free was void of a time under the 50-second threshold, as Simpson touched in 50.53 as the gold medalist here.
  • The reigning 1500m freestyle bronze medalist from this year’s World Championships, Lani Pallister, was entered in the 400m IM but was a no-show.
  • Smith took gold in the men’s 19+ 800m free, checking in with a time of 8:21.50.

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Gheko
1 year ago

Cruising 58.5 100fly for Emma🇦🇺🦘🇦🇺

commonwombat
Reply to  Gheko
1 year ago

The interesting, but sobering, side to this story is that this time is only likely to be beaten, when tapered, by probably 2 other fellow-countrywomen. A similar case with McKeown’s 100 back time.

Normally Queensland titles in December would see the first serious outings/times on the board but this will most likely be diluted somewhat this year with the crossover of dates with SC Worlds.

Robbos
1 year ago

Looking forward to seeing McKeon coming back to best in the next 2 years in the lead up to Paris to hopefully defending her 2 crowns from Tokyo.

Joel
Reply to  Robbos
1 year ago

this!!

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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