First-year Education student and USC Spartans swimmer Kaylee McKeown set four new records at the 2019 UniSport Nationals swimming championships on 10-12 May.

McKeown, a 2018 Commonwealth Games finalist, gave USC plenty to cheer about with record times in 50m backstroke (27.83 seconds), 100m backstroke (59.46 seconds), 200m backstroke (2:07.10) and 200m individual medley (2:11.04).

Her achievements helped USC finish seventh from the 29 universities that attended the carnival at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre that was staged by Swimming NSW and endorsed as a high-performance event by Swimming Australia.

Four other USC Spartans swimmers – Jake Packard, Tianni Gilmour, Dahlas Rogers and Kai Smeaton – as well as Aiden Bergs, Brooke Monte and Charlie Thompson were in the eight-member USC students squad at the event.

Packard, a Commonwealth Games relay gold medallist, won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events and finished fourth in the 50m breaststroke.

Gilmour set a new UniSport record in the 400m individual medley (4:51.62) during a busy program that saw her finish third in the 200m butterfly, fifth in 100m backstroke and sixth in both the 100m backstroke and 50m breaststroke.

And Rogers claimed third in her 800m freestyle final, fifth in 200m freestyle and sixth in 100m freestyle.
While USC finished seventh overall, the USC women’s team was ranked fourth and the men’s team 12th.

— Terry Walsh