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Glacier Bear wins first career gold in Kamloops

Aidan Harvey isn't used to receiving calls from reporters. Before this past weekend the Whitehorse Glacier Bears swimmer had never won a gold medal before.
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Aidan Harvey isn’t used to receiving calls from reporters. Before this past weekend the Whitehorse Glacier Bears swimmer had never won a gold medal before. He was also surprised to learn his gold medal swim was a Glacier Bears record.

“I was not aware of that,” he told the News. “I think it’s pretty cool. I don’t know how to react. That was probably my best race in a while.”

Harvey won gold at the 22nd annual Kamloops June Classic over the weekend in B.C.

The 11-year-old captured gold and set a club long-course record in the 50-metre backstroke for boys 11-12 with a time of 37.17 seconds.

He cut a huge 5.70 seconds off his previous best time.

“Some of it might have been that it was potentially my first gold medal,” said Harvey. “That might be the reason.”

The club record is Harvey’s third, having set ones in the 200-metre backstroke for long and short course in the 10-and-under division.

He also claimed fourth in the 100-metre backstroke, cutting 2.73 seconds off his previous best, and seventh in 200-metre backstroke, shaving 3.29 off his best time.

Harvey also posted 14th in the 50-metre freestyle and the 50-metre butterfly, 15th in the 200-metre individual medley and 16th in the 100 free.

Harvey’s gold was one of four medals won by the Glacier Bears in Kamloops.

Whitehorse’s Lindsay sisters were the other medal winners. The speedy siblings added a gold and two silver to the Glacier Bears’ results.

Cassis Lindsay won gold in the 50-metre freestyle in girls 13-14 with a time of 28.34, which is a national qualifying time for her age group and the age group above her.

The 13-year-old was then selected for an “eliminator” race against the top finishers of all age groups at the meet and placed fourth with a time that ranks her ninth in Canada for her age group.

“It’s really hard before the race to get ready and say, ‘I’m going to win a gold medal and I’m going to do this and this to get it,’ because it’s over in 28 seconds,” said Cassis. “I don’t remember much from the race. I raced against someone I lost to last year ... and I was really happy to get a gold medal racing that particular person.”

Cassis also swam to fourth in the 100 free, sixth in the 200 back, eighth in the 50 fly and ninth in the 50 breast.

“It was a really good swim meet,” she added.

Rennes Lindsay snagged silvers in two freestyle events for girls 11-12. She claimed silver in the 50 free at 30.77 and in the 100 free at 1:07.04.

She added on a sixth in the 50 fly and 10th in 100 back.

“I feel improved a lot from AAAs. At AAAs I was still lacking in a lot of things and I’ve been doing some of them,” said Rennes. “This meet I was trying to focus on all the things I need to improve on.”

The Lindsays likely could have pocketed more medals but had to leave the meet early on Sunday to catch a flight and they missed two finals each.

Both Cassis and Rennes will compete at the B.C. AAA Championships next month.

Whitehorse’s Luke Bakica nearly added a fifth medal. The 13-year-old placed fourth in the 200 breast for boys 13-14. He also placed fifth in the 100 breast, eighth in the 50 breast and ninth in the 50 back.

Teammate Cassidy Cairns also broke into the top-10 with 10th in the 100 breast. She also snatched 15th in the 100 and 200 free for girls 11-12.

Brooklyn Massie notched 11th in the 200 free for her best finish in girls 11-12. She also hit 13th in the 100 back and 100 free.

Taylor Harvey snatched a pair of 12th-place finishes in the 50 back and 50 fly for girls 13-and-over.

Emma Boyd topped out with 20th in the 50 fly in the girls 11-12 preliminaries.

Riley Huston-Gingras came 24th in the 50 breast in the boys 13-14 preliminaries.

Rebecca Koser, who only swam in three events, finished 25th in the 200 breast in preliminaries for girls 13-14.

Nathan Muir-Cressman, 14, took 18th in 200 back in the preliminaries.

Shailyn Moore, 13, swam to 31st in the 50 fly preliminaries.

“We had a really fun time. I like being with a lot of teammates,” said Rennes.

“I think I perform better at meets when there’s a whole team there, and there were a lot of people there this time,” said Cassis. “You have the team spirit and everyone is there to cheer you on.”

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com