2022 QUEENSLAND LC PREPARATION MEET #2
Day one of the Queensland Long Course Preparation Meet #2 was more about who wasn’t racing than who was.
Based on the entries, we had expected to see powerhouse athletes Kaylee McKeown, Brendon Smith, Lani Pallister and Mack Horton diving in; however, all wound up no-showing the racing at Brisbane Aquatic Center.
In their stead, Commonwealth Games athlete Cody Simpson and Olympians Jenna Strauch, Cameron McEvoy and Zac Incerti stepped up to the blocks.
For 25-year-old Simpson, the Griffith University star topped the men’s 100m freestyle podium. Simpson clocked a time of 50.70 to narrowly edge out Incerti who got to the wall .03 later in 50.73.
Simpson owns a personal best of 49.34 in this event, a time he logged at last year’s Australian Swimming Championships. As for Incerti, he’s been as fast as 48.51, a mark he put up at last year’s Trials.
Interestingly for Incerti, the Aussie had been training with Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers at Marion Swimming Club in South Australia. However, 26-year-old Incerti is now listed as a USC Spartan in Queensland. We’ve reached out to Incerti for his insight into the move.
Simpson also landed on the 50m free podium, snagging the bronze in a time of 22.96. Getting the gold was 21-year-old Thomas Nowakowski who touched in 22.55 while McEvoy settled for silver in 22.65.
David Morgan got it done for gold in the men’s 200m fly, producing a mark of 2:04.09 while Jessica Madden scored a double by way of victories in both the 200m fly and 400m free. In the former, the Griffith athlete hit a time of 2:19.67 while in the latter she was the winner in 4:35.78.
Strauch earned gold in the 100m breast in a time of 1:08.18. That’s well off of her own lifetime best of 1:06.37 from last year’s Australian Trials, but it was enough to beat the field today by over 4 seconds.
