Glacier Bears highlight 2008 Yukon Invitational Swim Meet

Photo by Vince Fedoroff

Whitehorse Glacier Bears swimmers made plenty of waves at the 2008 Yukon Invitational Swim Meet.

The club won an incredible seven gold aggregate medal awards out of a possible 10 and broke four former Glacier Bears records over the course of the two-day meet.

“The best part is just seeing the kids having fun,” said Ron Sumanik, president of Swim Yukon.

“That’s really what swimming is all about. A lot of passion and want to come to the pool everyday, and the results come. It’s all about the kids really.”

Approximately 100 swimmers took part in the meet, including around 80 Glacier Bears.

The Haines Dolphins from Alaska also were present at the Yukon Invitational and brought a group of 14 kids.

This number from Haines was up from the Ryan Downing Memorial Swim Meet, held in October where the swim club brought a total of eight.

Ribbons were awarded to the top eight swimmers for each individual event, while gold, silver and bronze medals were also given out as prizes for the aggregate awards.

Final placing for age categories was determined by a points system, which awarded points for the top eight finishes.

The swimmer who finished in first place was given nine points, while second was awarded with seven and third won a total of six points.

This continued up until the eight spot, which was given one point. 

One of the more special awards included the Ryan Downing trophy, which was awarded to the male and female swimmers who made the most improvements in the 200-IM over the course of the whole swimming season.

This year, the winners of the Ryan Downing trophy were Taylor Campbell, who took off 27.34 seconds, and Shea Hoffman, who lowered his time by 23.78 seconds.

Campbell who had a particularly impressive meet, which included six AA qualifying times and winning a gold medal in the 11-12 age group.

Other aggregate medalists included, Dylan Swinton from the Haines Dolphins Swim Team (HDST), who finished in first place in the under eight boys’ category.

Whitehorse Glacier Bear Esteban Engasser came in second, while teammate Loughlin Thorson-Looysen placed third.

For the girls’ eight and under category, the Haines Dolphins placed in the top two positions with Brittney Bradford coming in first and Madison Chapin finishing second.

Zoe Bourget of the Glacier Bears prevented the Haines sweep of this age category by scoring enough points to lock down the third spot.

Haines once again finished with a top swimmer in the boys’ 9-10 age group with Casey Bradford winning gold. Whitehorse Glacier Bears rounded out the top three with Christopher Ritchie coming in second place and Liam Adel finishing third.

Erin McArthur of the Whitehorse Glacier Bears ended Haines gold medal domination of the younger age categories by finishing first overall, beating out Dolphins swimmer Alexandria Chapin, who placed second in the girls’ 9-10 group.

Jessica Harach of the Glacier Bears also performed extremely well and claimed the bronze medal in this age category.

Glacier Bears swept the boys’ 11-12 category, which included Craig Berube winning a gold medal, while fellow teammates Kevin Salesse finished second and Gavin Young claimed bronze.

This was the fifth time Berube has participated in the Yukon Invitational Swim Meet and it included a number of memorable moments for the young swimmer.

Among the highlights at the meet for Berube was breaking seven of his former personal best times, which included posting four AAA times.

One of the AAA times came in the 200-m IM, which is set at 2:58. Berube managed to beat this mark by two seconds, finishing the race at 2:56.

Berube also set a AAA time in the 50-m Free after swimming it in 32 seconds.

His third AAA finish came in the 400-m IM, which is set at six minutes and twenty five seconds.

Berube managed to better that by six seconds, recording a time of 6:19. His final AAA time came in the 200-m backstroke after he recorded a 2:58, beating the required time by just one second.

Berube, 11, said the time that meant the most to him was his finish in the 200-IM because it is one of his favourite events. He credited his success to his Glacier Bears Swim coach Kathy Zrum as well as the support he has received from friends and family.

Berube said the Yukon Invitational Swim Meet is one of his favourite meets of the swim season.

“It is just a really fun meet and sometimes Haines comes down, so they can bring some good competition too,” he said.

The Glacier Bears had a strong showing in the 11-12 girls category as well with Campbell winning gold and teammate Isabelle Parkkari finishing in second place. Haley Stout from Haines placed in the third sport in this age group.

Thomas Chretien of the Glacier Bears won top spot in the boys’ 13-14 group, while Felix Bouchard placed second and Josh Kelly finished third.

Chretien had an outstanding meet this year, which was highlighted by achieving a national age group qualifying time in the 1500-m free.

Chretien, who has the rank of Kodiak in the Glacier Bears, said the national age group time is the best accomplishment he has ever achieved in the sport.

“I have never had a national time before,” he said. “I didn’t think I could do it, but my coach really pushed me to do it.”

Chretien, who trains 11 hours a week, said this was his most successful Yukon Invitational Swim Meet to date.

“I didn’t really have any expectations because next weekend there is an Edmonton AAA trip,” he said.

“So I thought I would take it easy on this swim meet and work really hard on the next swim meet, but I decided to work really hard on this swim meet and I did really well.”

Chretien, 14, said he is more confident heading into the Edmonton meet after doing so well at the Yukon championships.

Whitehorse Glacier Bears continued their brilliant performance in the girls’ 13-14 age group with Kirsten Berube winning enough points to secure the first spot.

The Glacier Bears rounded out the top three in this category with Kate McArthur coming in second, while Alexandra Gabor placed third.

Yukon swimmers in the Glacier Bears showed off their skills in the boys’ 15 and over age group, sweeping the category. Brice Harding won the gold medal, while Jason Zrum finished in the second spot and Geo Bourcier came in third.

The Glacier Bears had a strong finish in the girls’ 15 and over category as well with Molly Purser striking gold and Kim Holmes placing in second.

Sumanik said it is important to hold a season-ending meet that rewards the athletes for all of their hard work.

“Rewards are important in every kids’ life, just a huge boost of self esteem and that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

“We always wish we would have more visitors. Our hats are always off to the Haines folks.

They come every year and we go down there every year and we have a great relationship.”

He said it’s nice that Haines participates in the meet.

“There is a rivalry there that has built up now, especially amongst the younger kids,” Sumanik said.

“Haines always brings some really strong young swimmers in particular and it’s just great.”

Steve Vick is the coach of the HDST.

He said he was happy with how the team did this year at the meet.

“They did great,” Vick said.

“It is a pretty fast paced meet, when the kids get out of the water they get enough time to dry off and then they have to go out and swim another event.

This is a fun meet for us, so we didn’t really have a lot of goal setting for this meet. Just to come, participate and have one more experience.”