Club and Community | 07 August 2022
US Nationals Wrap Up
The Australia A team of 25 athletes has returned from a successful campaign at the US Nationals in Irvine, California. Following a one week staging camp utilising the facilities at Soka University, the team prepared and competed at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center. Led by the team’s Head Coach Craig Jackson, the coaching team of Kyle Samuelson, Amanda Isaac and Paul Crosswell worked extremely well together and with their athletes in the lead up to and during the meet.
Tokyo Olympic finalist Maddy Gough was one of the standout performers with a very solid swim in the 1500m freestyle. Gough hit the front 400m into the race and never looked back, taking out the Championships in 16:07.34 in a field that included the silver medallist from the Tokyo Olympics. Gough also finished 4th in the Women’s 400m freestyle.
Following a solid preparation, Shaun Champion won silver in the Men’s 100m butterfly in a personal best time of 51.54. This was a great breakthrough swim for Shaun and his coach Amanda Isaac.
West Australian Talara-Jade Dixon was a standout in the Women’s 100m breaststroke, finishing 3rd in 1:08.15.
The male distance trio of Alec Mander, Matthew Galea and Elliot Rogerson swam in the 800m and 1500m freestyle. Mander won bronze in the 1500m freestyle final with Galea 5th and Rogerson 8th. Mander finished 5th in the 800m final in a personal best time of 7:59.39. Rogerson also finished 8th in the 400m Individual Medley in 4:20.23.
South Australian Brittany Castelluzzo swam a strong 200m butterfly to finish in 5th place in 2:09.81 whilst Ty Hartwell also finished 5th in the Men’s 200m Backstroke in 1:58.50.
Gemma Cooney finished 6th in the Women’s 200m Freestyle A final in 2:00.12 behind winner Katie Ledecky.
Kai Taylor finished 7th in the Men’s 200m Freestyle final in a personal best 1:47.50 and Tasmanian Matilda Smith finished 7thin the Women’s 200m Breaststroke final in 2:30.85.
Kayla Hardy finished 8th in the 200m individual medley in 2:15.28 and Mia O’Leary was also 8th in the Women’s 50m freestyle in 25.25.
