Swanson (20), an Invercargill builder, beat a 20-year-old Southland senior men's record when he jumped 14.71m.
It was the highlight of the two day Otago championships at the weekend and marked Swanson as the man to watch when the New Zealand track and field championships are held in Dunedin late next month.
"All the hard work I did in the winter months paid off," Swanson said.
Swanson, who has won six New Zealand junior triple and long jump titles, was third in the New Zealand senior championships last year.
He has improved his distance by a remarkable 50cm this season.
Daniel Balchin (Caversham) put in a sustained sprint over the last 180m to win the men's 1500m in a personal best time of 3min 52.38sec from Matt Lambert (Nelson) 3min 53.48sec.
Balchin led for the first three laps but Lambert challenged him down the back straight on the last lap.
"I felt strong coming into the last lap and picked up the pace with 200m to go," Balchin said.
"When I came to the final straight I stepped up to another gear."
Balchin (20), a first-year senior, also won the 800m title in another personal best of 1min 54.49sec.
He led through the bell in 57 seconds, pushed it down the back straight and led by 10m coming into the straight.
Callan Moody (Ariki) closed the gap down the straight to 5m, finishing runner-up in 1min 55.32sec.
Balchin, who also won the 3000m earlier this month, won three titles at the championships.
Andrew Whyte (South Otago) dominated the men's aged 19 sprints when he won the 200m in 22.54sec and the 400m in a personal best time of 48.12sec.
This ranked him sixth in the country for senior men this season and third on the junior ranking list for the 400m.
Whyte (17), a pupil at South Otago High School, trains on a South Otago sheep farm.
He is coached by Jim Baird.
Glen Ballam (Southland) was runner-up in a personal best time of 48.95sec.
He is ranked seventh on the national junior ranking list.
Rebekah Greene (Hill City), another athlete coached by Baird, won the women's 19 800m (2min 09.97sec) and 1500m (4min 25.19sec) double.
She was acting on the instructions of Baird when she went out fast in the 800m, passing through 200m in 28sec, 400m in 60sec and 600m in 1min 33sec.
The fast pace told after this but she had a big enough lead to win the title by 13 seconds from Shauna Paul (Hill City), who ran 2min 22.88sec.
Kieran Fowler (Taieri) jumped to fifth on the national-ranking list when he won the senior men's javelin with a personal-best throw of 50.11m.
He was the top thrower at the championships and also won the discus with 40.51m and caused an upset by beating former national medallist Jerram Huston (Taieri) in the shot put with 13.96m.
Huston was second with 13.53m.
Other leading athletes included Holly Robinson (Greymouth), who won the women's aged 15 and 16 shot put (8.41m) and the discus (31.34m), and Freyja Plumridge-Frew (Dunedin), who won the women's 200m in 58.74sec.
