A highlight of the third night came in the 400m freestyle when London Olympian Matthew Stanley had to dig deep to edge out Howick-Pakuranga teenager Ewan Jackson in an exciting final.
Stanley out-touched Jackson to win by 0.2s in 3.42.63, with both swimmers going under the qualifying mark for December's world championships in Turkey.
The night was sparked early with Christchurch teenager Sophia Batchelor dipping under the qualifying time with a superb performance in the women's 200m backstroke which she won in 2.04.13, 3s under the FINA A time.
That brought the tally of qualifying performances to five midway through the meet.
Batchelor, 18, had the agony of missing qualification for the London Olympics by 1/100th of a second in the 100m backstroke.
But she was all class in winning the 200m in Wellington with her time being 3s inside the world championship time. She was the only swimmer under the 30s mark for the first 50m and was 3s clear when she went through the halfway mark in 1.00.96, and came home strongly.
Batchelor said missing out on the Olympics had helped her look at her swimming.
"Within the last two years, all my swims have been about making this time or getting on this team. It has been outcome-based and meant focusing on the wrong thing. I got away from the bit I love, so missing the Olympics helped me reassess how I was swimming.
"The experience of my first world championships will help me immensely. I was the only one there last time and I was absolutely terrified. Now I know what to expect."
Jackson, another of the super-talents to come out of the outstanding Howick-Pakuranga age programme, took it to the national long distance record holder Stanley in an exciting 400m freestyle.
The younger swimmer opened up a 1s advantage after 100m and he held that until the final two lengths, when Stanley unleashed a withering 26.74s finish to grab the victory.
Both swimmers were more than 3s under the qualifying time for Turkey and their performances were in the top 15 in the world this year.
"My big goal is to break out on to the world scene," Jackson said.
"I have been telling myself in training that I need to work harder to get on to the international scene this year.
"I want to build towards the next Olympics and do some damage."
London Olympian Natalie Wiegersma (Waverley, Southland) took out the 100m individual medley in 1.03.17 in a super-close race. Wiegersma, fourth at the midway stage, prevailed with seven swimmers within 0.7s of the winner.
Otago's Kurt Crossland (Neptune) fought through in the final 100m to claim the men's 200m individual medley in 1.58.68 ahead of North Shore's Ashton Baumann, who led early.
However, Baumann, 19, bounced back to take out the men's 200m breaststroke emphatically in 2.12.73.
In other finals, Nielsen Varoy (Roskill) added the 50m butterfly title to his freestyle honours.
