Five Whitehorse Glacier Bear swimmers were in Kamloops, B.C., for the B.C. Winter Provincial Championships from March 7 to 10.
Amelia Barrault, Kassua Dreyer, Aidan Harvey, Hannah Kingscote and Alex Petriw competed for the Yukon at the meet, which took place in a long course — 50 metres — pool rather than a short course — 25 m — pool like the one in Whitehorse the Glacier Bears train in.
Barrault and Dreyer reached a combined four finals during the meet.
On the first day of the meet, Barrault kicked things off with a personal best in the 200-m breaststroke that put her in sixth position. Dreyer also swam in the qualifiers, finishing 13th. Based on those finishes, Barrault qualified for the ‘A’ final and Dreyer qualified for the ‘B’ final, both on March 8.
The Yukoners concluded competition on March 7 with the 200-m medley relay. Harvey, Barrault, Kingscote and Petriw finished 32nd overall with a time of two minutes and 3.63 seconds.
Racing started on March 8 with the 100-m freestyle. Kingscote and Petriw both swam strong races but missed qualifying for the finals. Dreyer also competed in the 100-m freestyle, missing out on the finals.
In the 400-m freestyle, Dreyer started strong in qualifications but a slow final 50 m kept her from advancing to the finals. Glacier Bears head coach Malwina Bukszowana said in an email Dreyer has been gaining confidence through racing and that Dreyer has her sights set on some new goals, like the 1,500-m freestyle.
Both Harvey and Petriw set personal bests in the 400-m freestyle but missed out on qualifying for the finals.
The afternoon session on March 8 included Barrault and Dreyer in the finals of the 200-m breaststroke. Barrault started slower in the final than the heats but improved in the second half of her race to finish fifth. Bukszowana said Barrault indicated she had been holding back “a little too much” in the beginning. Dreyer swam faster in her final than in qualifying, finishing 14th overall. Bukszowana said Dreyer improved “everything she could” from the heats in the finals.
On March 9, both Barrault and Dreyer swam in the 100-m breaststroke finals. Barrault finished seventh in the ‘A’ final and Dreyer finished 15th in the ‘B’ final.
The final race of the day for the Glacier Bears was the 200-m freestyle relay. Kingscote, Harvey, Dreyer and Petriw each swam a leg, finishing 36th overall.
The Glacier Bears did not qualify for any finals on the final day of the meet, but Petriw had personal bests in the 200-m freestyle, 50-m freestyle and 100-m backstroke, while Barrault Dreyer had personal bests in the 200-m individual medley.
Contact John Hopkins-Hill at john.hopkinshill@yukon-news.com