As the Australian Age & MC Championships came to a close, some WA athletes are in good contention for selection to the Junior Pan Pacific and Oceania Championships. Others have gained new learnings and great takeaways from the major competition.
The last few days were filled with epic performances from young talents like Lucas Fackerell (Breakers, c: Harry Clark) and Tex Cross (Highlanders, c: Ryan Steenkamp), alongside other standout athletes who wrapped up their campaigns in their respective age groups.
For Fackerell, he defended his title as champion and won an outstanding four gold medals. From the 1500m freestyle to the 200m freestyle, Fackerell left no doubt in the pool.
Not to be outdone, Cross stamped his lead in the distance events, taking home three gold medals in the 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyle events. In the 400m freestyle, he unofficially crushed the WA All Time record clocking in at 3:52.98.
Highlanders’ teammates Daniel Boshart and Johann Szymanski (c: Ryan Steenkamp) championed in their events. Boshart secured gold in the boys’ 18 years 100m butterfly, shaving 0.41 off his entry time with a 53.22 and Szymanski dominated in the 800m freestyle.
In the 400m freestyle, Inez Miller (Fenix, c: Deb Jones) won gold for her age group with a time of 4:16.90.
UWA West Coast’s Sylvia Czajko (c: Rob Palfery) owned the girls’ 50m freestyle, unofficially breaking the WA All Time record in the heats with a time of 25.27.
The 17-year-old boys' 200m freestyle race on Saturday was one to watch, featuring strong contenders like Xavier Collins (Westside Christ Church, c: Jon Harrison), Tex Cross, and NSW's Marcus Da Silva. Da Silva touched for gold, while Collins claimed silver and Cross took home bronze. Collins clocked in at 1:49.76, which was only 0.4 seconds off the WA record held by Tommaso D'Orsogna.
As the final few nights of racing unfolded, other WA medalist were; Braden Fyneman (17yrs 1500m freestyle), Isabel Sheldrick (16yrs 100m and 200m backstroke), Xavier Collins (17yrs 100m freestyle), Lucy Porter (15yrs 200m breaststroke and 400m IM), Sean Alcorn (17yrs 200m freestyle), Charlie Spencer (15yrs 50m butterfly) and Matthew Loffler (18yrs 50m breaststroke).
The UWA West Coast Swimming Club team of Sylvia Czajko, Alice Massey, Lucy Dutton, and Emma Stewart, added to the medal haul with a bronze in the girls' 15-16 years 4x50m freestyle club relay.
Yani Davis (c: Briana Preiss-Crisp) made Karratha Swim Club’s first national final on Sunday in the boys' 15-year 100m backstroke, paving the way for further success in WA's northern region.
To wrap up the Championships, the last events were the medley state relays. In the mixed 17-18 years 4x50m medley relay, our WA team secured the final medal of the event, winning a bronze. The team of Maisy Stuart, Matthew Loffler, Sophia Tarman and Johann Szymanski clocked in at 1:54.40.
During the Championships, WA athletes completed a total of 818 swims, out of which 357 were finals. They performed exceptionally well and won 48 individual medals, including 17 gold medals.
A staggering 455 swims were faster than their initial seed times, accounting for 55.6% of all swims.
Regional swimmers also made a significant impact by outperforming their seed times in 57.5% of their swims and 31 regional finalists. 17 final swims met the challenging Junior Pan Pac qualifying times.
