The Whitehorse Glacier Bears had a very successful week at the B.C. 2022 Winter Provincial Championships.

The provincials were held March 10-13 in Victoria, B.C.

The Star reached Head Coach Carmen Escobar in Cancun, Mexico, where five Glacier Bears are training for the Canadian Trials in Victoria April 6-10.

According to Escobar, the B.C provincials were “one of the largest provincials I had ever seen.” 720 swimmers took part in the competition.

“It was a very long meet and very unusual as well, in order to accommodate all these athletes and respecting the capacity numbers that the facility had. It was a very random way to organize it. Sometimes we swam really early in the morning from 7 until 10, and then come back at finals at 3, and then the next day we swam prelims from 11 til 2, and then come back at finals at 3 again. So it was a very hard schedule to assimilate,” recalled Escobar.

Six swimmers competed for the Glacier Bears: Emily Vangel, Mia Barrault, Hannah Kingscote, Thomas Gishler, Alex Petriw and Thomas Bakica.

They ended up winning seven medals – four gold, three silver, and one bronze.

Escobar said that’s “one of the largest numbers that we ever won at this level of competition”.

“We made finals every single day,” she stated.

They also broke 14 club records.

Three swimmers qualified for the Canadian Trials April 6-10 in Victoria: Mia Barrault, Hannah Kingscote and Thomas Gishler. It will be their first time competing in the event.

“That is also a great number. We usually have one or none,” related Escobar.

“Mia was at Junior nationals once before, but has never been at a senior level trial competition, where the best of the best of Canada is gonna compete.”

The Yukon swimmers at the Canadian Trials will be competing for a spot in the FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary June 18 to July 3, 2022.

Escobar said qualifying for the Trials wasn’t the only accomplishment they achieved at these provincials.

“Two years ago, which was the last provincials that we had, we scored 53 or 56 points. This time we were at (223 points), so we went from top 32 to top 30, 23 (place). It was a competition with over 40 teams. Not all of them scored.

“We were right in the middle with only six athletes, so if you go down to efficiency, so with our six athletes and the amount of points that we scored, we were probably way up there in the level of competition. We put on a decent show. So we were very happy. We’re all motivated. The percentage of best times was very high. We were probably over 85 per cent. A couple of races, we were not sharp. Most of the time we were right on, swimming strong prelims, getting ourselves into the finals. Once in finals, we were fighting for spots.

“On the last day, two bronze medals were gone by .04. We were fourth place by .04, one in the 50 Free (style), the other one in the 800 Free. Eight minutes and 30 seconds of competition and you miss the medals by .04.

“But it was awesome. It was absolutely successful.”

Escobar said some of the highlights of the provincials were “Mia Barrault’s gold medals in the 100 and 200 Breast (stroke). That was wonderful, because she’s been qualified for provincials for a while, but she has never medaled. She has been in the top eight before ... the fact that she handled both the races, dominating the field, separating herself from the other competitors – I think in the 200 Breast the other person was three seconds behind, which is something in swimming. It was very cool to see.

“She did a very similar event in the 100 Breast, like half the race. She started the race among everybody else, and in the second 50, she again took off from everybody else. So that was some solid improvement. Also, her times placed her in a very good possibility for a junior final at nationals, which is also very nice.”

“The other one was Thomas Gishler, the other Trials qualifier, who has even less experience than Mia. Coming into provincials, I don’t think he had ever qualified for any national level competition, just provincial competition. For the past three years I’ve been working with him, he’s been gaining against his rivals at provincials, but he was still far away from being in that position of a medal. He showed so much improvement at this competition. In the 400, he won bronze, against odds, because he was, again, not in the position of a medal. He was ranked eighth or ninth coming into the meet and came in third.

“The 1500, he was ranked sixth or seventh, came in fifth, but for the whole race, he was placed second – I think he died a little bit.

“So the highlight of this is our athletes are believing and are positioning themselves ... for a medal. Racing the best of the best – B.C. is one of the best provinces in Canada for competition, and we have the fortune to race with them. So seeing his improvement and seeing him discovering how much power he has and how much more confident he can be – doing the 1500, being fifth, doing the 400, placing third, made him believe that the 800 was also possible. He went for it, he lost a medal by .04, but he was amazing. From having nothing to having three national level cuts, in rank now ... he’s probably way up there in his age group, which is also amazing.”

“Hannah as well. She was probably the one with more medals than anybody, so that was also a highlight for us. She has medaled before, if I’m not mistaken, at provincial level. For her, it was also reassurance that she can race well.”

Kingscote won two gold and two silver at the competition.

“For her, I think this has been the provincials with more medals under her belt,” said Escobar.

Escobar explained why the Glacier Bears are training in Cancun, of all places.

“It is an Olympic pool here in Cancun, outdoors ... I knew about this pool and this pool has hosted other international meets before. So when we were planning for this year, the original plan for us was to come to Cancun in December.”

The Omicron wave of COVID had other plans for them.

“We went to Edmonton instead. Oh my God, that week in Edmonton was so cold!” exclaimed Escobar.

“But we were chasing the 50 metre pool, which is what we want. It really makes a difference, training in a 25 or 50 metre pool. 25 is all we have in Whitehorse.

“So when things were looking (like) possibly loosening things up, I proposed to my swimmers ‘ok, let’s go to provincials, then from there we go to Cancun, and depending on how we do in provincials, we stay in Cancun either longer or shorter, cause training in long course all the way to Canadian Trials is essential, rather than stay here for a week or two and then go back to Whitehorse, do a short course, and then go back to Victoria.’ So swimmers were like ‘all right, we work our butt off at provincials, do the best we can, and then we try to stay as long as we can in the 50 metre pool for better training and better abilities for us to race smarter.’”

“So here we are in this adventure in a very strict plan and routine. We are not in a tourist area. We are in town experiencing the real Mexico and that’s also important, because I don’t want distractions, I don’t want any of that. We aren’t here on holidays. We’re here to work. Swimmers have to commit to do schoolwork or studies and do their own cooking and do their own things. There’s no services for us. We are doing our own thing. So it’s like ‘yes, we are in a warm place, but you’re not here on holidays, my friend.’”

Five swimmers are in Cancun with Escobar: Emily Vangel, Mia Barrault, Thomas Gishler, Alex Petriw and Thomas Bakica.

Escobar is ensuring that the swimmers don’t get exposed to the sun between 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The club goes to the Canadian Trials after Cancun.

Then April 21-24, they will compete in Western Nationals in Edmonton.

April 29-30, the Yukon Championships take place in Whitehorse, where they will be selecting the Yukon team for the Canada Summer Games. “A super-important meet,” stated Escobar.

She gave some insight into how her young proteges are looking for the upcoming nationals.

“I think my breaststroker (Barrault) can be a contender for Junior Finals.

“I think Thomas, this camp is going to make a huge difference for him, to train long courses as hard as he can. At provincials, he showed his ability to actually put up with a significant amount of pain and effort and this camp will make a significant difference for him to keep improving, even though he made a huge jump and at that meet, I think he can make another one. So I think he could be a surprise for possibly the 400 and the 1500, to be out there maybe in the top 10 juniors as well. He could make the final. It will be a long shot, but he could, if he keeps doing what he’s doing.

So we might actually surprise people.

“Mia will be too old for world juniors, but Thomas is not. Mia turns 18 in July, therefore she’s no longer a junior, but she will be a junior at nationals still. Thomas is still 16, so he could be a candidate for junior worlds.

“I will talk to him about the possibility to be in a final ... once you’re there, then it’s everybody’s game.

“He’s still very new at racing at this level, so I know the nerves are going to be present, but you never know. He was a different guy this past weekend. So I think he’s figuring things out.”

Escobar says it’ll be a long shot for Kingscote, who will be racing in the senior category, to make a final at the Canadian Trials.

“The focus for her will be in the summer nationals at the end of July to contend for a medal.” Escobar added “We’re doing our best to represent Glacier Bears and Yukon. We’re happy.”

For complete results from the B.C. provincials, go to https://swimbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022-winter-provincials-meet-results.pdf