Jack Cartwright Sets Record, Teenagers Impress at Aussie Age Groups

Rising Australian sprinter Jack Cartwright had three event wins in the 17-18 age group, with one of his races taking down an Australian age group record at the 2017 Aussie Age Group Championships.

Results

Cartwright, who qualified for the Budapest World Championships at the Aussie Senior Nationals, broke the 18 years record in the 100 back with a 54.53, winning by almost two seconds. Read more about that record here. He also swept the 100 and 200 free– in the 100, Cartwright went 48.71, just off of his 48.49 from Senior Nationals. Then, in the 200 free, he posted a 1:47.31 to win by over two seconds over Zachary Attard (1:49.48).

Attard had an outstanding swim on the 4×200 free relay, though, splitting a 1:48.64 anchor leg. Also putting up a strong 200 free time, this time though in the individual 16 years 200 free, was Eli Winnington (1:49.21). Attard (3:54.75) and Winnington (3:54.80) posted nearly identical times in the 400 free.

Winnington won a whopping eight events in the 16 years age group. In addition to his victories in the 200 free and 400 free, he won the 50 free (23.25), 100 free (50.89), 100 fly (55.52), 200 fly (2:01.41), 200 IM (2:03.95), and 400 IM (4:29.26).

Ariarne Titmus put up a slew of wins for herself in the freestyles. In the 800, she was 8:33.49, which was ten seconds off of her lifetime best from Senior Nationals. That still was good enough for an eight-second victory in the 16 years 800 free over Molly Batchelor (8:41.99). Titmus and Batchelor would end up going 1-2 in both the 16 years 200 free and 400 free. In the 200, Titmus put up a very strong 1:57.90 for the win with Batchelor behind at 2:00.31. In the 400, Titmus hit the wall first at 4:07.09 with Batchelor 2nd at 4:09.23.

Meanwhile, two swimmers in the 17-18 age group were able to break two minutes in the 200 free. Laura Taylor led the way at 1:59.29, followed by Gemma Cooney‘s 1:59.66. Cooney also broke a minute in the 100 fly (59.32), while Taylor was 8:39.47 in the 800 free 17-18 division.

Bowen Gough nearly broke two minutes in the 200 fly, going 2:00.02 to win the 17-18 division. In the 100 fly, his 53.48 was just barely edged by Jordan Brunt, who took the event in 53.46, a mere two hundredths ahead of Gough.

Minna Atherton was another 16-year-old with multiple wins. She took the 100 back in 1:00.35 and then doubled up with the 200 back in 2:11.57. Young backstroker Kaylee McKeown picked up wins in the 15 years category, too. She was actually fastest of all divisions in the 200 back (2:10.32) and was 1:00.78 in the 100 back. McKeown also won the her division in the 200 IM (2:15.12) and the 400 IM (4:45.75).

The Aussie men have had depth issues in breaststroke of late, but two 18-year-olds had strong performances last week. Zac Stubblety-Cook and Daniel Cave were the class of the field in the 17-18 200 breast. Stubblety-Cook edged Cave, 2:12.32 to 2:12.91, as no other swimmer finished under 2:17. Cave hit the wall first in the 100, though, at 1:00.81 to Stubblety-Cook’s 1:01.55, as Cave came within a few tenths of Matthew Wilson’s 17-18 age group record.

Cave, notably, split a 59.85 breaststroke on Melbourne Vicentre’s 400 medley relay– a promising stat for the Aussies’ future.

Nathan Robinson, a 17-year-old, was another multiple-winner.  He went 15:16.78 to win the 17-18 1500 free, and also won the 17-18 400 free (3:51.67) and the 17-18 400 IM (4:21.80), touching out David Schlicht (4:22.09) in the latter.

13-year-old Asia Minnes was one of the youngest competitors last week, and she came away with several wins of her own. In the 200 breast, she posted a 2:37.65 for the 12-13 age group win, her 2nd time under 2:40 (the first was in prelims). Minnes took the 200 IM (2:19.14), 100 back (1:04.44), 200 back (2:19.93), and 100 breast (1:13.60).

In the 100 free, Minnes was edged 57.89 to 58.31 by Jenny Forrester. Forrester touched 2nd behind Minnes in the 200 IM (2:19.45), and in addition to her 100 free win, she was victorious in the 200 free (2:01.97) and the 400 free (4:15.79).