West Australian freestyler Tex Cross has broken a 33-year-old State record and just missed out on a podium place at the world junior swimming championships in Romania. The 18-yera-old West Australian Institute of Sport swimmer’s time of 3min48.17sec eclipsed Olympian Ian Brown’s 3:48.79, set at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Russian Grigorii Vekovishchev won the gold medal in 3:46.64, setting a new junior record for his country. Another WA swimmer Lucas Fackerell, 17, touched in 3:56.41. Fackerell and Cross also smashed a WA record in the 4x200m freestyle relay final when they combined with Queenslander Oliver Linde and Victorian Campbell Wilson-Moran for fifth place. Fackerell’s opening leg of 1:48.83 broke a 17-year WA record held by Olympian Tommaso D’Orsogna and Cross then anchored with 1:48.53. All four Australian swimmers dipped under 1:50 to post a final time of 7:16.90. Cross clocked a 7:58.99 in the men’s 800m freestyle final, breaking his own WA 18-year-old record and finishing 10th overall. Fackerell equalled his personal best of 8:08.07. The pair also posted PBs in the 1500m freestyle, Cross touching in 15:32.51 and Fackerell in 15:39.47. In other WA performances, Isabel Sheldrick, 17, just missed the final with a 1:01.43 in the 100m backstroke semi-finals, impressed with a 2:15.62 in the 200m backstroke heats and progressed to the 50m semi-finals with a 28.83sec swim. Sprinter Alex Sillitoe, 18, finished with a 24.32 int he 50m butterffy and also swam in the the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay.