Sienna Whalan, 17, showcased her talent in the stroke at the recent Australian Age Swimming Championships on the Gold Coast when she finished inside the top 10 in three races.

The Kinross Wolaroi swimmer's top result was a fifth placing in the 50 metre breaststroke (34.20), and earlier in the competition she also finished seventh in the 200m (2:42.64) and eighth in the 100m (1:16.12).

The Bathurst competitor was among the top finishers for the Kinross team across the event, along with Dubbo's Brody Steele who came home with a bronze medal.

Whalan travelled to Queensland hopeful of gaining a swim in the finals for her 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke races given that her qualifying times for all three events were among the eight fastest entries.

However, it's one thing to take a fast time into a major event and another to still deliver on the big stage.

"It was really exciting. It was great to see those results come through," Whalan said.

"I was great going into what is now my fourth national age championships. I went in seeded fourth in the 50 metre, eighth in the 100m and sixth in the 200m.

"I went into there fairly confident because I'd been swimming consistent times at training and a lot of that you were able to see in the racing as well.

"The race pressure came through, so I didn't come away with any PBs, but I've got the open national champs coming up on Wednesday."

The open championships will be held across April 17 to 20 at the same venue.

It will give Whalan the chance to take on Australia's elite swimmers and provide her another opportunity to try and set new personal bests.

The results are the best of Whalan's four attempts at the age nationals.

They give her plenty of confidence that she can both mentally and physically match it with the top talent from across Australia.

"Compared to last year's nationals I've moved up ranks. That's great to see over the course of the year," she said.

"There's definitely some added pressure when you go into your events seeded highly. That was especially true for the 50m because I thought to myself 'If you can PB then you might end up medalling' so that adds some tension.

"It does teach you how to cope well under pressure and doing it continuously means it definitely gets better over time, but it's still an area that I know I can improve in. That's something I'll work on at open nationals."

The year 12 Kinross student could find herself back in a Queensland pool regularly next year as she assess her options for both university and swim training.

"It'll be exciting moving next year for uni, which will open up opportunities for training with different coaches and locations," she said.

"You don't have to train with the university that you're with for swimming, so I'm not set on any particular club yet but I'd love to move up to Queensland for my swimming."