2023 NEW SOUTH WALES STATE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, March 10th – Sunday, March 12th
- Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center (SOPAC)
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Site
- SwimSwam Preview
- Start List
- Day 1 Recap
- Results – Meet Mobile: 2023 NSW State Open Championships
In addition to Kaylee McKeown‘s head-turning time of 57.84 in the women’s 100m backstroke, there were several other notable performances that went down on day two of the 2023 New South Wales State Open Championships.
St. Peters Western star Shayna Jack doubled up on her 100m freestyle victory from yesterday with a super quick 50m freestyle win tonight.
24-year-old Jack posted a time of 24.26 to get to the wall first amidst a stacked field, with Australia’s winningest Olympian of all time Emma McKeon relegated to silver in a time of 24.69.
Right behind McKeon was fellow Olympian Meg Harris who logged 24.74 for bronze and the 3rd swimmer under the 25-second threshold. Madi Wilson settled for 4th in 25.04 while a pair of 16-year-olds in Olivia Wunsch and Milla Jansen captured times of 25.24 and 25.30, respectively.
With her gold medal-worthy performance tonight, Jack shaves .22 off her previous season-best of 24.48 she logged last December to overtake American Abbey Weitzeil in the world rankings. McKeon now also enters the top 5 performers list.
2022-2023 LCM Women 50 Free
Sjostrom
WR 23.61
| 2 | Abbey Weitzeil | USA | 24.00 | 07/01 |
| 3 | Shayna Jack | AUS | 24.01 | 07/29 |
| 4 | Yufei Zhang | CHN | 24.15 | 07/30 |
| 5 | Emma McKeon | AUS | 24.26 | 06/18 |
McKeon was in the water earlier in the session to contest the women’s 100m fly. McKeon ripped a quick 57.07 to beat the field by well over a second, with Brianna Throssell touching in 58.21 as the silver medalist.
McKeon’s time checks her in as the #2 swimmer in the world on the season, sitting only behind American Regan Smith who has scored the sole sub-57 result thus far.
2022-2023 LCM Women 100 Fly
Yufei
56.12
| 2 | Torri Huske | USA | 56.18 | 06/29 |
| 3 | Gretchen Walsh | USA | 56.34 | 06/29 |
| 4 | Kate Douglass | USA | 56.43 | 06/29 |
| 5 | Maggie MacNeil | CAN | 56.45 | 07/24 |
The men’s 50m fly saw 28-year-old Cameron McEvoy top the podium, putting up a mark of 23.82. The Somerville House Aquatics athlete was slightly quicker in the morning, however, taking the top seed in a result of 23.67, the 2nd best time of his career.
Snagging silver in the men’s 50m fly final was Ben Armbruster with a time of 23.93 while last night’s 50m back victor Isaac Cooper rounded out the top 3 in 23.98.
World Record holder Ariarne Titmus was back in the water for day two, racing in the women’s 400m free.
The Olympic champion put up a solid mark of 4:01.94 to easily take the gold, with Lani Pallister next in line at 4:06.15. Mollie O’Callaghan was also in the race, cleaning up bronze in a result of 4:07.21, the fastest time of her young career by over one second.
Titmus now ranks 4th in the world this season in this women’s 400m free event.
2022-2023 LCM Women 400 Free
Titmus
3:55.38 WR
| 2 | Summer McIntosh | CAN | 3:56.08 | 03/28 |
| 3 | Katie Ledecky | USA | 3:58.73 | 07/23 |
| 4 | Erika Fairweather | NZL | 3:59.59 | 07/23 |
| 5 | Li Bingjie | CHN | 4:01.08 | 05/03 |
Of note, last night’s 100 free gold medalist (48.09) Kyle Chalmers was entered in the men’s 50m fly but wound up dropping the event. The 24-year-old Marion swimmer did contest the 800m free, however, punching a result of 8:23.03. That ‘off event’ result was just off the 8:22.93 he logged earlier this year at South Aussie States.
Additional Winners
- 17-year-old Flynn Southam produced a time of 1:47.08 to win the men’s 200m freestyle, getting the edge over last night’s 400m free gold medalist Elijah Winnington. Winnington hit 1:47.26 in tonight’s final. For Southam, his time represents the 3rd fastest of his young career.
- Visiting Japanese ace Shoma Sato clocked a time of 1:01.36 to win the men’s 100m breaststroke.
- The women’s 200m breast saw Jenna Strauch earn gold with a result of 2:25.68.
- Se-Bom Lee represented the sole men’s 200m IM competitor to delve under the 2:00 barrier in the 200m IM. Lee hit 1:59.73 to take the top prize.
- Joshua Edwards-Smith was tonight’s 200m backstroke winner, stopping the clock in a time of 1:57.21. He’s already been as quick as 1:55.42 from December’s Queensland Championships to rank #1 in the world.
thoughts for the 4×2:
- Emma, Shayna and Meg had seemed to all move their attentions to the 50 in recent years but Emma’s 2:07 200 fly does show if she wanted a relay spot she’d definitely get one if she still wanted it, Shayna’s 1:57 surprised me since she hasn’t really shown any interest in it since 2019 but she could be in the mix for the relay if she wanted to be, Meg’s probably least likely atm to make the relay between the 3 but she’s probably the most likely to swim the 200 at trials
- Brianna’s move to Boxall seems like its working out for her so far meanwhile the move was great for Kiah last year
… Read more »Shayna might have been faster with less aggressive pacing (she was out in 55.1) so the swim is even more promising than it seems.
Cooper takes 100 back with a 54.49, 0.6 faster than he swam two weeks ago.
I have faith we’ll see a 23 and a 52 from him this year.
Yang second in a 54.70 (who knew he could swim backstroke?) and JES third in 54.79.
Have recollection of Yang originally being a backstroker and have dug up a PB of 53.59 back at 2019 Nationals. Not sure whether there may have been injury issues that brought about the switch to free or whether he saw better prospects via collecting freestyle relay coin.
Cooper’s 50 back exponentially better than Melbourne. Jury still out on his 100; would love to see the 53 that you are touting but would probably be happy to settle for him getting back to his 53.3 from 2021 and delivering that on the opening leg of the 4XMED !
Oh ye of little faith! We have no chance of winning the men’s or mixed medley so that’s not my biggest concern. I assume Kaylee has the mixed medley slot locked, but if Cooper can shine then it could be Cooper/Male/McKeon/Female (other two slots tbd).
He was a 53.3 at 17. I know he can beat that by 0.3 this year.
AUS M4XMED certainly cannot win; however a competent opening leg rather than a 54sec can at least have them somewhere that the back-end can possibly rescue a bronze medal.
MMR will always be a lottery. AUS certainly doesn’t hold the strongest hand but they’re generally thereabouts.
Cooper’s PB is 53.43. Would be happy if he gets back to that; should he better it then great. I respect your optimism but as yet we don’t have the hard evidence that his LCM 100 is back on track.
Pretty successful meet for Kaylee. Takes a WR, top time in the world in 3 events and #2 time in the fourth.
Kaylee’s back times would have swept gold in Budapest (her 50 would be equal gold with Masse) and her 2IM would have been silver.
Not a bad effort!
Also a successful meet in general with a number of top times this year.
I can’t wait for the Aus Swimming Championships next month.
I hope to see (or chat) with guys there!
I live on the Gold Coast so I’m planning to go! Hopefully see some great swimming too (although I’m not expecting a WR)
Yeah it’s outside and who knows what the weather will do
Would happily settle for some AUS autumn weather at the moment. Barely above 0 Celsius, icy roads and snow in the east of the country !
Will be interesting to see the relative quality of performances at Nationals given its not the selection meet; possibly more interesting is just how many top-liners turn up and who/how many skip the meet ?
Quality meet for Mollie, a couple PB’s and swam faster times across every event than this event last year.
Most important is the 200 free, 1 second faster than this time last year, also a good half a second faster in the 100 back.
In general SPW was strong, but I do hold reservations for Titmus, who was slower.
Melverton was simply missing, Forrester was brilliant, Jack also made a small jump.
Kinda quiet outside of that, the men were okay, Cooper is back on the right curve. McEvoy is a pleasant surprise, hopefully he can do his best Ervin impression.
50 Back
Kaylee 27.31
MOC 27.38
Number 1 and 2 (tied with Masse) this year
50 back
27.31 Kaylee
27.38 Mollie (PB)
Kaylee’s fastest time since her PB. 0.15 off, and 20 minutes after swimming a 200.
Great PB for Mollie after swimming a 200 also!
Was silently hoping for a PB, thought it might be too much to ask after a 200, but hot damn.
Mollie only got stronger during this meet, and Kaylee swam her fastest 50 in a while after a harder double, so she has got her speed back.
Kaylee pushed the backstroke finally but was slower in the fly and free than her PB from Tokyo trials.
28.04 31.69 37.62 30.92 2:08.27
27.71 32.66 37.34 30.48 2:08.19
Forrester with a 3.5 second PB 2:10.32
Kaylee is inexperienced in IM (relative to Back), previously it seems she has done a steady back (easy n relax) and saved herself to go hard in breast). Her recent 106.8 100 breast on indicates she does not need to save herself so much for the breast and can push back a bit harder…
IMO either she need to lift fly (unlikely) or get the balance right between how hard she goes in back vs breast in order to go 2:07 mid to low maybe even faster… exciting times ahead in 200IM globally!
Kaylee with a 2:08.27 in the 2IM. Spicy! 0.08 off her PB.
Thanks. Couldn’t remember exactly her time from 2022. Great swim. Where does it put her in this years rankings?
Number 2.
Summer is leading with 2:08.08
Second after Summer’s 2:08.08.
Forrester is actually 3rd in 2023 so far with her 2:10.32 as well.
If a happy swimmer is, indeed, a fast swimmer then keep sending McKeown as much comedy as possible …….. and keep on her good side, Mr Bohl !!
Have been 50/50 re her swimming the 200IM going forward but this is certainly an indicator that she’s still very much a factor should she do so.
That is a 3.5sec PB by Forrester ! Previously she’s only seemed a one event swimmer with the 400IM but this time betters the AUS QT for Fukuoka (2.10.72). Her 4.39 earlier in the meet seems indicative that qualification in her main event (4.38.53) looks on track but this 200 is a major pleasant surprise.
22.08 McEvoy
22.19 Nowakowski
22.37 Chalmers