For the first time since 2011, the Whitehorse Glacier Bears didn’t win a medal at the SwimB.C. AAA Long Course Championships, held July 6-9 in Kamloops.
But that’s not to say there weren’t highlights for the team, represented by Cassis Lindsay, Rennes Lindsay and Hannah Kingscote.
Cassis made two A finals in the women 16-18 division and set a club record.
She placed fifth in 50-metre backstroke in 31.89, setting a new and Glacier Bears club record.
Cassis also took seventh in the 50-metre freestyle (28.38) and and placed 15th in the 50-metre butterfly (30.59).
“Cassis and Rennes were really struggling at the end,” said Glacier Bears head coach Malwina Bukszowana. “They didn’t train super hard (because) they were sick and it took months for them to recover. We even skipped some swim meets we were supposed to (attend).”
Kingscote made an A final in girls 14-15, finishing sixth in the 50-metre backstroke (32.55).
She also placed 11th in the 100 back at 1:08.69, missing a qualifying time for the Canadian Junior Nationals by less than half a second.
Kingscote took 15th in the in the 200 back with a time of 2:35.39 after swimming a personal best of 2:32.82 in the preliminary.
“Hannah had a really good backstroke, she improved her backstroke recently and it was nice to see her beat her best time by quite a lot,” said Bukszowana. “She improved her best time in Kamloops in June, so it was a very good swim meet in backstroke events.
“She was so close to qualifying for Canada juniors, I think she had a very good meet — especially for backstroke.”
Rennes made two B finals in the girls 14-15 division, taking 11th in the 800-metre freestyle (9:46.65) and 14th in the 400-metre individual medley (5:24.10).
Rennes is the only Yukon swimmer to qualify for the Canadian Junior Nationals, taking place in Toronto in the last week of July.
“She swam hard right to the swim meet because she already has Canada juniors (qualifying times),” said Bukszowana. “She’ll swim faster at Canada juniors because I didn’t give her as much rest as (Cassis and Kingscote) because she didn’t have to qualify anymore.”
“Both Cassis and Hannah were just milliseconds away (from qualifying),” added Bukszowana.
Rennes and Glacier Bears teammate Kassua Dreyer also competed at the B.C. Open Water Swimming Championships on July 10 in Salmon Arm.
Dreyer placed seventh in the one-kilometre for girls 12-and-under and Rennes matched that result in the two-kilometre event for her age group.
Rennes, Dreyer and Kingscote will be among 10 Yukoners who will compete at the Canada Summer Games that begin at the end of the month in Winnipeg. They will be joined by Glacier Bears teammates Ella Pollock-Shepherd, Emma Boyd, Cassidy Cairns, Brooklyn Massie, Alex Petriw, Thomas Bakica and Aidan Harvey. Cassis Lindsay is over the age limit.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com