Whitehorse’s Adrian Robinson returned to competitive swimming after more than a year away, setting two Glacier Bear club records in November.
This past weekend he proved that was no fluke.
Robinson broke club records eight times in six events at the 38th annual SnowFest Meet in Kelowna, B.C.
“It went very good. I was extremely happy with the races I swam and I also accomplished some of my goals that I set,” said Robinson. “I was competing against 14- and 15-year-olds, which gave me good competitiveness and was very challenging.
“After the weekend I had all personal bests in all my events and I had four AAA (times) ... And I’m hoping to get two more in the time trial coming up.”
Robinson, who missed all of last season with a shoulder injury, set his short course club records in the boys 13-14 division.
The 14-year-old set a record in the prelim of the 100-metre back and then broke it in the final with a time of 1:06.97. He did the same in the 50-metre free, swimming it in 26.43 in the prelim and 26.26 in the final.
His others came in the 50-metre backstroke (30.96), the 100-metre freestyle (58.75), the 50-metre breaststroke (33.56) and the 100-metre breaststroke (1:15.18).
His AAA times were set in the 50 free, 50 back, 50 breast and 100 breast.
Robinson, who was swimming the boys 14-15 division in Kelowna, made the podium with second in the 50 breast and third in the 50 free. (He missed the 100 breast and 100 free finals to catch a flight home.)
“My endurance isn’t where it was before my injury, but it’s slowly getting there,” said Robinson.
Robinson was one of eight members of the Whitehorse Glacier Bears at the meet that saw about 275 swimmers from throughout B.C. compete.
Teammate Hannah Kingscote also set club records and made the podium. The 12-year-old set records in the 50 back (32.80) and 100 back (1:11.60) for girls 11-12. Both records belonged to former Glacier Bears Alexandra Gabor - the only Yukoner to win a gold at the Canada Summer Games - dating back to 2006.
Kingscote also placed second in the 100 back and sixth in the 50-metre butterfly.
The Bakica brothers were fast as usual. Thomas Bakica took third in the 50 breast for boys 12-13. Brother Luke swam to fourth in the 200 breast for boys 14-15.
Glacier Bear Donovan Bielz podiumed with second in the 200 free and placed fourth in the 200-metre individual medley, for boys 16 and over.
Aidan Harvey claimed fifth in the 100 and 50 back, and seventh in the 50 free and 50 fly.
“Aidan did really well: he swam the 1,500-metre freestyle and qualified for his AA,” said Glacier Bears head coach Malwina Bukszowana. “He does really well at the long distances recently.”
Whitehorse’s Emma Boyd made B finals in the 50 and 200 free for girls 12-13.
Teammate Taylor Harvey, who is dealing with a shoulder injury, took 12th in the 100 back and 15th in the 100 free, shaving 29 seconds off her time, in girls 14-15.
“She is doing really well for just kicking,” said Bukszowana.
“It went really well. I think the kids swam a little faster than I expected at this time, especially since they had a time trial last week and they were a little bit tired,” she added. “They always swim so well at the Outside meets that it’s kind of easy to motivate them.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com