McKeown, Simpson, McEvoy Head Up Queensland Prep Meet Entries

2022 QUEENSLAND LC PREPARATION MEET #1

  • Saturday, October 8th – Sunday, October 9th
  • Brisbane Aquatic Center
  • LCM (50m)
  • Draft Entries

The 2022 Queensland Preparation Meet is set for this weekend, with action kicking off at the Brisbane Aquatic Center Saturday, October 8th. The two-day affair is designed to provide qualification opportunities for swimmers leading up to the Queensland Championships which are slated for mid-December.

Although some high-profile names to the tune of Kyle Chalmers, Cate Campbell and Emma McKeon are missing from the draft entries, there is still plenty of talent to make this competition a must-watch.

Multi-Olympic medalist Kaylee McKeown leads the Griffith University Swim Club contingent, with the 21-year-old taking on a hefty schedule of 6 individual events.

McKeown is entered in the 50m, 100m, and 200m breaststroke races, in addition to the 100m back, 100m and 200m freestyle events.

We’re used to seeing the world record holder dominate in her specialty backstroke, but the breaststroke is a discipline McKeown races rather infrequently.

According to the Swimming Australia database, McKeown owns personal bests of 31.91, 1:07.85 and 2:27.21 in the 50m/100m/200m breaststroke events, respectively, with the times all having been performed last year.

Her Griffith teammates Josh Edwards-Smith, Bowen Gough, Lani Pallister, Cody Simpson and Brendon Smith are also set to race this weekend.

20-year-old Pallister, the 1500m freestyle bronze medalist at this year’s World Championships, is coming off of a successful Lifesaving World Championships. She earned 9 medals at the biannual event which concluded October 3rd.

For pop singer Simpson, the 25-year-old is entered in the 50m and 100m fly, as well as the sprint freestyle events. He is also scheduled to race the 200m IM, a race in which he has no times listed in the Swimming Australia database. The minimum time qualification for the 2022 Queensland Championships is 2:08.34, so we’ll see if he’s able to produce that should he maintain his entry this weekend.

Also expected to race at this prep meet is two-time Olympian Cameron McEvoy.

Now representing Somerville House Aquatics, 28-year-old McEvoy has limited his entries to his bread-and-butter 50m and 100m freestyle events.

McEvoy doesn’t appear to have raced since competing at the 2020 Olympic Games last year. There in Tokyo, McEvoy earned bronze as a prelims swimmer on the men’s 4x100m free relay. Individually, he placed 29th in the 50m free with a prelims effort of 22.31 while he ended up 24th in the 100m with a result of 48.72.

The freestyle ace announced his ‘comeback’ via Instagram two months ago, saying, ‘The sabbatical year is over and it has given me a lot to look forward to. So much exploration in so many different avenues. Now it’s time to see how much of everything transfers over long term (very long term) in moving the new vessel through the water.’

We’ve reached out to Coach Tim Lane at Somerville to find out more about McEvoy’s training and future palns.

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Chlorinetherapy
1 year ago

Does anybody know if this is going to be live streamed? Can’t see it anywhere on Prime video or SwimTV.

Troyy
Reply to  Chlorinetherapy
1 year ago

If it were going to be streamed it’d probably be on the Swimming QLD streaming service but it’s not listed there.

https://swimmingqld.watchsport.com.au/

5wimmer
1 year ago

Has Shayna Jack had her hand operated on again? Seen pics on Instagram of her with a sling and bandaged up

Troyy
1 year ago

A couple of other entries:

Tommy Neill – 50/100 free, 100 back
Hannah Casey – 50/100/200 free, 100 fly

Sub13
Reply to  Troyy
1 year ago

Hmmmm wonder why Neill is skipping the 200. It’s been a bit off this year but it’s still his best event.

Troyy
Reply to  Sub13
1 year ago

Swimmers often swim off events at these prep meets so I wouldn’t read too much into it.

Robbos
Reply to  Troyy
1 year ago

Hopefully Neill can recover, thought he was our best 200 free man coming out of Tokyo.
Not sure what happened to Hannah Casey at Jr Pan Pacs, she went 54.3 at age championship to 55s in the Jr Pan Pacs, while her fellow young 15/16 year old swimmers Jansen & Wunsch improved by about 1/2 a second.

Last edited 1 year ago by Robbos
Joel
Reply to  Robbos
1 year ago

I don’t know about Hannah, but I know a few swimmers got covid in May, June and July. Maybe she had it too. Can knock you around a bit.

Last edited 1 year ago by Joel
Troyy
Reply to  Troyy
1 year ago

The final entries are out and Neill is no longer entered but McKeon (50/100 FR, 100 FL) and Lewis (200 FR, 100 BK) are entered now.

H1H2
1 year ago

McEvoy looks like he has beefed up a fair bit. Surely it will not help his 100. His thing, at least to me, was always that he was light but had great power, so could sit on top of the water VDH style (or Popovici). Maybe we will see him target the 50 more in the lead-up to Paris.

A real shame that he was never able to replicate his 47.0 after 2016 trials.

Troyy
Reply to  H1H2
1 year ago

You’re right about him only targetting the 50 because that was reported elsewhere about a month or so ago.

Robbos
Reply to  H1H2
1 year ago

Often think what happened to McEvoy after that 2016 47.0 trails swim!!!!

commonwombat
Reply to  Robbos
1 year ago

Unless he ever “spills” (most likely after he collects his superannuation cheque); we may never truly know. My (worthless) 2c worth is that much may have “between the ears”. For all the talk of his intelligence; that does not mean that intelligent people aren’t immune to “overthinking matters”. With Rio specifically, its not out of the question that the added pressure of being an “expected” top performer in what proved to be a misfiring team was an added factor.

Robbos
Reply to  commonwombat
1 year ago

I fully understand that maybe he misfired in Rio, C1 did too, but she recover & swam some very good times. McEvoy never went close to that 47.0 ever again. This is more my question what happened after RIO?

commonwombat
Reply to  Robbos
1 year ago

Once self doubt takes hold, you can end up second-guessing everything. Not saying that happened with McEvoy but it’s a possible scenario.

GoDawgs
Reply to  H1H2
1 year ago

Did McEvoy finish is PhD or whatever he was working on?

Sub13
1 year ago

Interesting choices for McKeown. I guess she is committed to adding an IM (I assume only the 200 but who knows) in Paris. There’s no point in her swimming all three backs when she knows she’s just going to smash them all again.

Considering she’s not a breaststroker, her breast times are actually not that bad, 0.7 and 1.7 off the Tokyo A cut.

I assume she’s just swimming the free events for fun and to prepare more for the IM. Best case scenario for her is a heat swim on a free relay, and it seems unlikely she would be trying to add this for the free medal when she already has 3 individual and 2 relays.

commonwombat
Reply to  Sub13
1 year ago

Realistically there is sufficient depth for both freestyle relays that she’s unlikely to be part of those equations.

Will be interesting to see whether she does swim the full slate of BRS or just the 2 shorter races. Her 100 PB is certainly top 5-6 in the country.

Would agree that one, but not both, IM is likely to be seriously pursued however a higher priority would arguably be that of getting her backstroke back in full sync after looking not quite right this year.

Sub13
Reply to  commonwombat
1 year ago

She and Bohly both said they weren’t expecting good times from her this year and it was a building year, so I’m hoping that’s all it was. The pessimist in me is nervous though.

Pretty much all of Bohl’s swimmers have been slower this year while almost all of Boxall’s have been faster. Interesting…

Verram
1 year ago

Isn’t McEvoy a three time Olympian , not two? Stillnox 6 anyone ??

Sub13
Reply to  Verram
1 year ago

Correct, he is a 3 time Olympian.

Coco
1 year ago

I don’t really care for the guy but to continue calling Cody Simpson a pop star is incredibly disrespectful and undermining his genuinely great achievements in the pool so far

Classic_Swimmer
Reply to  Coco
1 year ago

Great achievements? Did i muss something?

Coco
Reply to  Classic_Swimmer
1 year ago

Putting up times in the 100 fly that are top 15 in the world and qualifying for a major tournament having not swum for 10 years is pretty good no?

Argentina on top 🇦🇷
Reply to  Coco
1 year ago

Achievements 🤣🤣😂😂 loool

Olympic champ Kyle Chalmers is gonna smash your musician aka Miley Cyrus’ ex next year at Fukuoka trials and Paris as well.

Verram
Reply to  Argentina on top 🇦🇷
1 year ago

He’s achieved much more than you buddy ..

Argentina on top 🇦🇷
Reply to  Verram
1 year ago

Naaah weak argument . I achieved much more than you and him in my field, so cry about it 🥱🥱

Won’t change the fact that Chalmers is operating on a different level as a swimmer and is gonna smash him in competitions moving forward. 🤫🤫

Troyy
Reply to  Argentina on top 🇦🇷
1 year ago

Simpson has a lot of momentum with how much time he’s dropped so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get the second spot next year.

Sub13
Reply to  Argentina on top 🇦🇷
1 year ago

Not that I really care about this silly argument, but I have a feeling that Cody may overtake Kyle in 100 fly by Paris. It’s Cody’s #1 priority and isn’t Kyle’s, and the improvement Cody has made in only 2-3 years of real training are pretty extraordinary.

Kyle, of course, will be Australia’s #1 100 free until he retires.

Dressel GOAT
Reply to  Sub13
1 year ago

I think that second spot in the 100 fly is going to go to either Shaun Champion or the youngster Jesse Coleman.

Sub13
Reply to  Dressel GOAT
1 year ago

Very possible. Shaun is younger and has a slightly better PB. But the jury is still out on how close Cody is to reaching his potential given his unorthodox journey.

Joel
Reply to  Dressel GOAT
1 year ago

Shaun is looking fantastic – he was sick at trials

Deep Trouble
1 year ago

McEvoy won’t break 50 seconds in the 100 free. Shades of 2012 Ian Thorpe.

Greg
Reply to  Deep Trouble
1 year ago

Don’t be a hater

mundo
Reply to  Deep Trouble
1 year ago

neither will u

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