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SPLASH START – Amelia Ford starts the 100-metre backstroke during the Ryan Downing Memorial Swim Meet in Whitehorse last month. Inset Hannah Kingscote

Glacier Bears qualify for AA, AAA Championships at Xmas Cracker meet

Hannah Kingscote is rapidly defining herself as a backstroke specialist.

By Marissa Tiel on December 5, 2016

Hannah Kingscote is rapidly defining herself as a backstroke specialist.

The 14-year-old swam to a B.C. AAA Championships qualifying time in the 200-metre backstroke at the Xmas Cracker Swim Meet in Victoria last weekend.

The Glacier Bears swimmer, who attended her first age group nationals this summer, finished 8th in the event over the weekend and is now only one second away from a nationals qualifying time.

As a younger swimmer, coach Malwina Bukszowana said that Kingscote used to be a backstroke specialist, but growth has forced her to relearn her technique.

Now, after about a year-and-a-half of work, Kingscote is coming into her own in backstroke and butterfly.

Her strength underwater is what helps her in these events especially, said Bukszowana.

She swam the butterfly leg of the 200-metre medley relay. Brooklyn Massie swam the opening backstroke leg, Cassidy Cairns swam the breaststroke, while Emma Boyd anchored the team for freestyle to finish 13th overall in the girls 13/14 division.

Aidan Harvey (back), Thomas Bakica (breast), Finn Johnson (fly), Alex Petriw (free) finished 8th in the boys’ 13-14 division of the 200 medley relay.

Harvey had a breakout weekend, downing a Glacier Bears record in the 200-metre backstroke on his way to qualifying for the B.C. AA Championships and finishing 13th.

“I thought I had a pretty good race,” said Harvey. “I went into it hoping to get a time and I got the time.

“I was pretty happy. I was also pretty tired.”

During the ‘B’ final, Harvey said he was just focusing on going fast.

The 200 metre isn’t quite a sprint, but it’s also not the longest race so Harvey was just trying to find the Goldilocks pace.

“You can’t go all out, but you also can’t go easy at the start,” he said. “It’s really tricky to find that middle ground sometimes and try to hold it.”

Harvey, who has been attending the Xmas Cracker meet since he was about 10-years-old, helped some of his teammates, who were attending the big meet, which used two pools, for the first time.

He helped them navigate the warm-ups, which he said can “get a bit hectic.”

Brothers Finn and Ollie Johnson, who moved to Whitehorse from Fort Smith after attending a swim meet in the capital city were at the Xmas Cracker for the first time.

Bukszowana said they and Christopher Blakesley did well.

“All of them were breaking their best times by a lot in every stroke and are very interested in every stroke correction,” she said.

They watched the finals with wide eyes.

“They really tried hard,” said Bukszowana. “They were really trying to learn a lot.”

Having their own breakout meets were 12-year-old Amelia Ford and 14-year-old Emma Boyd.

Ford made her B.C. AA Championships qualifying on Friday in the club’s only final of the day. She finished 13th in the event.

On Saturday, Ford finished 10th in the 100-metre freestyle, qualifying for the B.C. AA Championships in that event as well.

On Sunday, Boyd was third in the 50-metre freestyle ‘A’ final and was only a handful of milliseconds away from attaining her AAA time standard.

“She had a great meet. She was taking every advice, writing down her splits and what she needs to work on in the near future to swim even faster,” said Bukszowana in a report on the meet. “She is very eager to be better, hungry for success.”

Boyd has qualified for all the sprint freestyle events at the B.C. AA Championships.

Amelia Barrault, 12, swam her first AA time in the 100-metre breaststroke on Saturday. Teammate Cassidy Cairns swam her best time in the same event and is only half a second off her AA standard.

Josh Zaidan finished 11th in the 50 free during a ‘B’ final.

Whitehorse Glacier Bears swimmers only have one more local shot to qualify for the B.C. AA Championships, which will be held in Chilliwack, B.C. Feb. 17-19.

Bukszowana is finalizing details for a time trial meet between the Glacier Bears and the visiting Juneau Glaciers in mid-January.

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