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Glacier Bears knock down two club records in Kamloops

A bunch of personal best times, two club records and a medal returned home with Whitehorse Glacier Bears swimmers following the Kamloops June Classic over the weekend in B.C.

A bunch of personal best times, two club records and a medal returned home with Whitehorse Glacier Bears swimmers following the Kamloops June Classic over the weekend in B.C.

“All 10 WGB swimmers who went to Kamloops tried hard in all the races. Sometimes the effort was rewarded with the finals and best times, but sometimes it was not enough to achieve the goal,” said Glacier Bears head coach Malwina Bukszowana in a news release.

Whitehorse’s Hannah Kingscote set seven personal best times at the 24th annual long-course meet and was rewarded with five A final appearances.

She swam to bronze in the 50-metre backstroke, setting a new Glacier Bears club record of 32.95.

She also took sixth in the 50-metre butterfly, and eighth in the 100 fly, 200 back and 50 fly.

“Hannah did well in her fly races, but missed qualifying time for (Age Group Nationals) this time,” said Bukszowana. “She has one more chance to qualify at B.C. AAA Championships in July and she is coming back home with a lot of motivation. Hannah proved again that her underwater fly kicks off the walls are very fast, she barely has anybody able to keep up with her off the walls.”

Teammate Luke Bakica made three A finals and was twice edged from the podium. He placed seventh in the 50-metre breaststroke with a new club record of 34.74. He also placed fourth in the 100- and 200-metre breaststroke events.

“He was only few milliseconds away from a bronze in 200 breaststroke, but had nothing left at the finish to defend his leading position,” said Bukszowana. “Every race is a lesson, so Luke, as well as his teammates, are coming back home with more experience.”

Glacier Bears’ Aidan Harvey claimed spots in three backstroke A finals, taking fifth in the 200, seventh in the 50 and eighth in the 100.

Teammate Cassidy Cairns swam to sixth in the 100 breast and finished 13th in the 50 breast and 14th in the 100 freestyle.

Other top Whitehorse results include: Thomas Bakica ninth in the 50 breast; Rebecca Koser 10th in the 50 breast; Ella Shepherd-Pollock 13th in the 100 breast; and Alex Petriw 14th in the 50 back and 200 free.

Cairns, Kingscote, Pollock-Shepherd and Emma Boyd placed fifth in the 4x50-metre freestyle relay for girls 13-14 on Friday. They then placed sixth in the 4x50-metre medley relay on Saturday.

Harvey, Luke, Thomas and Petriw took seventh in the boys 15-and-over medley relay.

While not improving their times in the pool, Glacier Bears helped some B.C. Lions improve theirs. Members of the CFL team, who were there for a swim, got some pointers from the Whitehorse swimmers.

“They are coming back with some swimming experience, some fun memories from on deck and some excitement after talking to - as they described it -

‘massive’ B.C. Lions players,” said Bukszowana.

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com