Whitehorse Glacier Bears win pair of bronze medals at swim nationals

Local swimmers Bronwyn Pasloski, Alexandra Gabor and Mackenzie Downing all produced medals in the 2008 Summer Nationals held in Winnipeg last weekend.

Local swimmers Bronwyn Pasloski, Alexandra Gabor and Mackenzie Downing all produced medals in the 2008 Summer Nationals held in Winnipeg last weekend. 
The meet adopted the Olympic format of evening preliminary sessions and morning final sessions and was the final preparatory competition for Canada’s Olympic swim team.
Pasloski swam to a bronze medal in the 50-m breast and finished seventh in the 100-m breast.  She was ninth overall in the 200-m breast, ending up first in the B-final.  As well, she lopped over one second off her previous best time in the 50-m back.
Pasloski said winning the bronze medal meant a lot to her.
“It’s definitely a step up there,“ she said. “I think that in the next year it’s definitely going to be a big improvement.“
Gabor claimed bronze in the 200-m free and swam to a seventh place finish in the 400-m free.  She qualified for the B-final in both the 50 and 800-m free, finishing 16th in both events, and capped off the meet with a 17th place finish in the 100-m free.
The two girls combined points to place 24th out of the 74 teams participating in the event. 
Marek Poplawski was the head Glacier Bear’s coach who attended nationals. He said he was pleased with how the girls did.
“They did very well,“ he said. “It is a very good accomplishment.“ 
Meanwhile, former Glacier Bear Mackenzie Downing, who now swims for the University of Victoria/Pacific Coast Swimming club, showed why she continues to be one of the top female butterfly swimmers in the country, grabbing gold in both the 200 and 100-m butterfly and finishing second in the 50-m fly. 
Also competing at this meet was Lynsey Pasloski, who now swims with the University of Calgary Swim Club.  She helped her team to a seventh place finish in the 4x100 medley relay.
Gabor and Pasloski are off to Calgary for the Club Nationals next weekend.  In this meet, participants compete against swimmers their own age from across the country. 

Joining them will be fellow Glacier Bears Tanner Cassidy, Spencer Sumanik and Brice Harding.
Story provided by Alice Purser on behalf of the Whitehorse Glacier Bears Swim Club.