Australian State Short Course Championships Opens With Meet-Record Swims

CANBERRA, Australia, September 20. WEST Australian speedster Braga Verhage has broken two meet records on the opening night of the 2013 State Teams Short Course Swimming Championship at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.

Swimming in his first event of the weekend, Verhage won the boy’s 14-15 50m freestyle in a sizzling time of 22.67, eclipsing Te Huami Maxwell’s meet record time of 22.80 that has stood since the event first started, in 2009.

The 15-year-old picked up the points for WA ahead of a strong field with last year’s champion Kyle Chalmers (22.88) in second and New South Wales swimmer Vincent Dai (22.96) third.

Verhage continued his record breaking run winning the boy’s 14-15 50m butterfly final in a State Teams record time of 24.14, getting the better of Olympian Jayden Hadler’s record by 0.01 of a second.

With a replica of the top three from the 50m free, South Australian Kyle Chalmers (24.46) was second and New South Wales swimmer Vincent Dai (25.43) third.

The records continued to roll with Queenslander Rebecca Cross in the girl’s 13-14 200m individual medley. Cross set a new meet record with her time of 2:15.58 to win the points for her state ahead of Victorian Mikayla Smith (2:16.24) and her teammate Calypso Sheridan (2:16.32).

Earlier in the night, Alanna Bowles blitzed the field in the girls 15-16 years 400m freestyle hitting the wall in a time of 4:06.70.

The Junior World Championship silver medallist in this event led from start to finish holding off Barcelona World Championships representative Chelsea Gubecka (4:12.61) who finished second and New South Wales team member Meg Bailey (4:14.03) in third.

The girl’s 13-14 years 50m butterfly final saw World Junior Championship silver medallist Stephanie Whan in her element. Whan continued her strong form from Dubai to hit the wall in an impressive 27:02, finishing over one second clear of two New South Wales swimmers Chloe Yoo (28.49) and Angelique Barrett (28.50).

In other events…

Girls 13-14 50 Metre Freestyle
Victorian teenager Julia Hawkins took the win in the girl’s 13-14 years 50m freestyle, stopping the clock in a time of 25.53 to finish ahead of fellow Victorian Elyse Woods (25.80) and Queensland’s Georgia Wells (26.14).

Girls 15-16 50 Metre Freestyle
Queensland swimmer Lizzie Gannon won the girls 15-16 years 50m freestyle in a time of 25.18, narrowly out-touching Lucy Soden (25.34) in second place and Chelsea Gillett (25.58) in third.

Boys 16-17 50 Metre Freestyle
Queensland sprinter Blake Jones won the boys 16-17 years 50m freestyle in an impressive time of 22.75. West Australian swimmer Raymond Jones (22.85) and Victorian Lachlan Wells (22.99) were not far behind finishing in second and third respectively.

Girls 13-14 400 Metre Freestyle
Queensland swimmer Sarah Johnson was too strong in the girl’s 13-14 years 400m freestyle, taking the win in a time of 4:19.86. Johnson finished ahead of two Victorians, Ellodie Reid (4:21.78) and Adelaide Wood (4:22.74)

Boys 14-15 400 Metre Freestyle
Queenslander Clyde Lewis was the only swimmer who broke the four minute mark in the boys 14-15 years 400m freestyle. Lewis touched the wall in a time of 3:59.93 to take out the title ahead of the Victorian swimmer Declan Forster (4:01.18) and Tasmanian Jacob Vincent (4:02.31).

Boys 16-17 400 Metre Freestyle
South Australian Swimmer Ethan Owens (3:53.00) picked up some much needed points for his state in the boy’s 16-17 years 400m freestyle, finishing ahead of Hayden Hinds-Sydenham (3:52.71) from New South Wales and WA’s Damian Fyfe (3:55.95).

Girls 15-16 50 Metre Butterfly
Queensland swimmer Lizzie Gannon (26.80) extended Queensland’s lead with a win in the girl’s 15-16 years 50m butterfly ahead of Victorians Lucy Soden (26.90) and Mikaela Cornelissen (27.14).

Boys 14-15 200 Metre Individual Medley
New South Wales team member Matthew Wilson (2:03.27) streaked ahead of the field in the boy’s 14-15 years 200m individual medley hitting the wall close to two seconds ahead of Victorian Joel Watson (2:05.16) who was also two second clear of third placed Alex Milligan (2:07.15).

Girl’s 16 and under 4x200m freestyle relay
The girl’s 16 and under 4x200m freestyle relay was taken out by a full strength Queensland (8:03.43) team that included Barcelona World Championship representative Chelsea Gubecka, two Junior World Championship medallists in Chelsea Gillett and Alanna Bowles and dual medallist from the meet so far Lizzie Gannon. The NSW team (8:09.09) picked up the points for second with Victoria (8:12.47) rounding out the top three.

Boy’s 17 and under 4x200m freestyle relay
The NSW (7:20.99) team of Hayden Hinds-Sydenham, Jacob Hansford, Peter Topalidis and Lachlan Hansen managed to hold off a fast finishing QLD (7:24.00) to take the points in the boy’s 17 and under 4x200m freestyle relay. South Australia snuck into third with a time of 7:31.45.

Queensland finished the opening night in first place on the point score ahead of New South Wales in second and Victoria chasing in third.

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