Spotlight On Kaylee McKeown, Thomas Hauck On Penultimate Night In QLD

2018 QUEENSLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, December 15th – Friday, December 21st
• 12/15 – relays only; 12/20 & 12/21 – age groupers
• Brisbane Aquatic Center
• LCM
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Entry List
• Live Stream
• Live Results

2017 World Championships finalist Kaylee McKeown was back in the Brisbane Aquatic Center pool today, contesting the women’s 200m backstroke as part of the Queensland Championships. On the penultimate day, the 17-year-old USC Spartan won the girls’ 17-18 age group in the event with a mark of 2:09.47, hitting the wall over 5 seconds ahead of the next competitor.

Splitting 1:03.94/1:05.53, McKeown’s solid sub-2:10 performance tonight surpassed the 2:10.67 she threw down in Fiji for bronze at this year’s Youth Olympic Games. But, it’s well off her own personal best of 2:06.76 logged in Budapest for 4th place. Her performance that landed the Aussie just off the Budapest podium stood as the World Junior Record until America’s Regan Smith overtook it with her 2:06.43 from U.S. Nationals this past summer.

Also in the pool tonight was 15-year-old All Saints Thomas Hauck, who continued his tearing apart of Queensland age records. Tonight, the boys’ 15-year-old 200m free was his victim, with Hauck crushing a new personal best mark of 1:51.27 to take gold. Splitting 53.33/57.94, Hauck’s effort this evening overwrote the previous Queensland All Comers Record of 1:51.51 set by Olympian Jayden Hadler back in 2008.

Additional notable swims included Japan’s Nozomi Wada winning the 12-year-old 100m breaststroke in 1:08.56, while St. Peters Western’s Michaela Ryan notched the girls’ 15-year-old 100m fly win in 59.93.