17-Year-Old Peiniger Takes 200 IM, Becomes 6th Fastest Aussie Ever

2019 AUSTRALIAN SHORT COURSE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, October 24th – Saturday, October 26th
• Melbourne Sports Centres (MSAC), Victoria
• SCM
• Meet Site
• Start Lists
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Live Results

The 2019 Australian Short Course Swimming Championships wrapped up tonight in Melbourne, with TSS Aquatics standout Kiah Melverton wrangling up her 4th national title.

After already taking gold across the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle events at this meet, the Short Course World Championships bronze medalist in the 800m free collected another title in the 200m free. She stopped the clock in a time of 1:56.75 to ger her hand on the wall first ahead of charging teenager Gabriella Peiniger.

Peiniger, just 17, produced a silver medal-worthy outing of 1:57.06 to give Melverton a run for her money, while Melbourne Vicentre’s Elyse Woods rounded out the top 3 in 1:58.06.

Prior to this race, however, Peiniger topped the women’s 200m IM podium, with the MLC Aquatic star busting out a lifetime best of 2:06.36. That easily touched ahead of the 100m IM and 400m IM victor here, Meg Bailey of Hunter, who posted a runner-up effort of 2:09.42 this evening.

For Peiniger, her time not only checks-in as a new Australian Age Record for 17-year-olds, but her performance also checks the teen in among the all-time Aussie performers at #6.

1. 2:05.63 Alicia Coutts 87 Redlands Nov’13 Tokyo
2. 2:05.46 Emily Seebohm 92 Brisbane Grammar Nov’17 Singapore
3. 2:07.26 Ellen Fullerton 92 Chandler Nov’15 Sydney
4. 2:07.45 Abbey Harkin 98 St Peters Western Dec’18 Hangzhou
5. 2:07.76 Kotuku Ngawati 94 Melbourne Vicentre July’10 Brisbane
6. 2:06.36 Gabriella Peiniger MLC Aquatic Oct ’19 Melbourne

Olympian David Morgan of TSS Aquatics collected his 6th consecutive 100m fly national title in a time of 51.06. World Championships finalist Matthew Temple of Nunawading and Nic Brown of UWA West Coast were also under the 52-second threshold in respective efforts of 51.37 and 51.79.

Singapore’s visiting swimmer Joseph Schooling settled for a 6th place finish in a time of 52.36. He already took the 50m fly and 100m free gold medals on previous days here in Melbourne.

Additional Winners:

• Laura Taylor successfully defended her 200m fly title, reaping gold in a time of 2:07.14.
• Firbank Aquastars swimmer Sam Williamson completed his sweep of the men’s breaststroke events, producing a winning 200m distance time of 2:07.42.
• Singapore’s Teong Tzen Wei got it done in the men’s 50m free, clocking a time of 21.41. That established a new national record, overtaking his 21.81 from the morning heats.
• David Schlicht, who competes for the University of Arizona in the NCAA, won the men’s 400m IM in an effort of 4:07.47. That held off All Saints swimmer Thomas Hauck, who took 2 titles already here. 16-year-old Hauck touched in 4:09.74 to hack 2 seconds off his previous PB and position himself as the 2nd fastest Aussie 16-year-old of all-time.
• Hayley Baker successfully completed a trifecta of victories over the women’s backstroke events, topping the 50m podium tonight in a mark of 26.90.
• William Yang took home the 100m back title for the men in 51.54, the only sub-52 second time of the final.