In what could be viewed as a sign of the growing talent and enthusiasm on the Whitehorse Glacier Bears Swim Club, 13 swimmers will be bringing back 18 medals from the recent B.C. AAA championships in Prince George.

It was the largest team the Yukon had ever sent to the provincials and all of the swimmers achieved personal bests. At last year's AAA championships, the local swim club brought back just one medal a bronze. And the team overall had never finished in the top ten.

Before the championships, head coach Marek Poplawski said the team had the potential to finish in the top five overall, but he cautioned that the competition would be tough, with anywhere up to 50 different clubs taking part in the event.

'We will be in the top ten for sure,' he said at the time. 'That's a good goal because they've never been that high before anyway.'

Well, the club certainly met their goal, as they placed an impressive seventh out of 34 teams some of which had more than 30 swimmers from their club competing.

'We did amazing,' said Glacier Bear Lynsey Pasloski, in an interview from Prince George. 'We've been training a lot and Marek's a good coach. We had about five weeks of training before the meet and we all had a good taper going into the meet. Since school's been out, we've pretty much dedicated all our time to swimming.'

Swimmer Brendan Zrum added that one of the most important factors in the weekend's success was 'everyone actually wanted to swim this time.'

One of the real highlights of the competition was the relay events each day. The girls returned home with three medals one gold and two silver in three events. Bronwyn, Lynsey, Gabor and Erin O'Connor had the fastest time in the 200-m freestyle and were second in the 400-m free.

Gabor, Lynsey, Bronwyn and Ariana Edelman combined for a silver medal in the 300-m IM. And in that event, Edleman swam a personal best and achieved a Canada Summer Games qualifying time.

'The girls relay team...we did amazing in that,' said Lynsey. We swam in the senior category because a couple of us are senior swimmers, but then there were a couple of younger swimmers too (Bronwyn and Gabor). So we did the event with two people who were much younger, which makes it even better.'

The boys were competing in the tough senior category for the relays and finished an impressive fourth place in the 4x100 m freestyle, up against some very competitive and older swimmers. Francis Aubin, Marcos Da Silva, Spencer Edelman and Zrum swam in the relay, with both Edelman and Zrum recording personal best times in their legs.

Alexandra Gabor led the individual medal charge this time around for the Bears. Competing in the 12-and-under age group category, Gabor collected gold medals in the 50-metre freestyle, 100-m free, 200-m free, 400-m free and 800-m free, which is her specialty. She also picked up a silver medal in the 100-m butterfly.

Bronwyn Pasloski, who recently moved up to the 13-14 age category, grabbed gold medals in the 100-m breaststroke and the 200-m Individual Medley, as well as a bronze medal in the 200-m breast.

Lynsey, competing in the senior age group category, won gold in the 50-m free and silver in the 100-m free while senior male Marcos Da Silva claimed a gold medal in the 100-m free and bronze in the 100-m breast, 100-m fly and 200-m IM.

'I was pretty happy (with my results),' said Lynsey. 'I think the meet went really well. I saw a lot of my times go down, which is always nice to see, especially right before Canada Games.'

Other swimmers attending last weekend's meet that competed in the very tough senior age group individually were Zrum, Aubin, Edelman, Geoffrey Thompson and Kayla Yeulet. Tanner Cassidy did well in the 14-and-under male age group category.

'It went great,' said Zrum of his own performance. 'I killed a lot of time in my (100 metre free). That was the one really good race I had.'

The AAA provincials were a warm up for those swimmers traveling to the Canada Games in August, which is everyone except Da Silva. Last week's AAA event was Brazilian exchange student Da Silva's last competition with the local swim club, as he is headed back to his home country at the end of the summer.

With the exception of Da Silva, all of the swimmers stayed behind in Prince George after the championships, for a week-long training camp with coach Poplawski.

'Brutal,' laughed Zrum, when asked how the camp was going so far. 'Usually everyone is in bed by 9 (p.m.), 9:30. We have two practices a day, for two hours each time, and then an hour of dry land training. It's work.'

Lynsey agreed the camp had been a bit of an adjustment, but added the swimmers know they need the training in order to do well at Canada Games. While they have had some time to do some shopping and catch a couple of movies in Prince George, Lynsey said, most of the time the team is just eating, sleeping and swimming.

'We're all pretty exhausted.'