The record books were not a safe place to be during the West Australian SC Championships with a multitude of records broken over the weekend.
15 year old Ethan McAleese set a WA All Time and WA Resident record in the boys 15yrs 400m Freestyle, with a time of 3:54.69 beating 2015 FINA Jr World Championships team member Damian Fyfe’s 2012 record. McAleese also won gold in the boys 15yrs 200m Butterfly final, finishing in front of Callum Lauriston by the smallest of margins, 0.01 of a second. McAleese was a 3-time winner on night two, winning the 200 back and 200IM in convincing fashion and once again coming out on top in a tight finish and touching out Raife Sillence by 0.01 in the 200 free. McAleese continued his success on night 3 by adding another record to his name in the 400 IM, blitzing the field to finish 21 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor and breaking a 16-year-old record. He then backed up later in the night to win the 1500m freestyle.
Jack Wilson set WA All Comer, WA All Time and WA Resident records, besting his own records set earlier this season. He also took out the boys 13yrs & Under 100m free final on the same night and won 200 backstroke & freestyle on night two. Wilson then added another impressive swim in the 1500m freestyle on night three, breaking his WA All Comer, WA All Time and WA Resident records, once again improving on the records he set earlier this year to finish well over a minute ahead of second place.
Claire Coten did it all on night two of finals winning the women 15yrs 400 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 50 freestyle, to go along with her win in the 800 and 100 freestyles the night before. On the final night of competition she added 2 more victories to her meet winning the 200 IM and the 200 freestyle to complete her sweep of the freestyle events.
Kirsten Pannekoek won the 16&Over 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke and 100 IM all on night two of the championships. She also added a victory in the 200 IM on night three. World Championship team member Brianna Throssel won the women 16&O 400 free in a new WA all comers and WA residential record beating Blair Evans and Jessica Pengelly. Blair Evans secured a win of her own as she helped the West Coast relay team to a first place finish 10 seconds ahead of second place and a WA state record in the 400 freestyle relay with teammates Tamsin Cook, Sophie Yaksich and Hadley Lindsay. Evans then completed the win in 400 IM, an unusual event for her as she normal focuses on the freestyle events.
Emma Bond was a 2-time winner on night two winning the 13&U 100 butterfly and the 100 IM. Sophie Vergone also joined her as another 2-time winner on night 2 winning the 14yrs 100 IM and 200 breasts. On night 3 Vergone added to her tally by taking the out the 200 IM.
A junior West Australian representative team will now be picked and will head to the National Training Centre for 2015 State Teams Short Course Championship later this month.
It’s been a while due to extreme bursitis but Blair Evans was always an im swimmer . She is still the 2nd or 3rd fastest australian from 2012 for the 400 im . I don’t know the condition of the shoulder – if it allows im – but her chances would be good for Rio .a 4 36 again should do it