Despite a long and tiring season, the Whitehorse Glacier Bears managed to put in some impressive performances at the annual B.C. AAA long course championships last weekend.

Nine swimmers from the club travelled to Victoria for the meet, which featured over 600 swimmers in different age groups.

The meet started on Thursday July, 6 and finished on Sunday, July 9. Another 11 Glacier Bear club records were broken, for a total of 139 broken records this past season.

Travelling for the first time to this level of competition and a long course pool was Kirsten Berube, who made several top 30 finishes in the 12-and-under age group.

Competing with the team for her last time as a Whitehorse Glacier Bear was Erin O'Connor, who finished the meet with a 24th place finish in the 100-metre breast stroke.

Erin will be attending the University of Calgary in the fall and will be trying out for the varsity swim team, along with fellow Whitehorse residents Kayla Yeulet and Lynsey Pasloski, who swam with U of C last year.

O'Connor, Yeulet, Tanner Cassidy, Ariana Edelman, Spencer Edelman, Geoffrey Thompson and Brendan Zrum all competed in the very tough and competitive senior category, and in some of their races, there were athletes who were 26 years and older.

Bronwyn Pasloski competed in the 14-and-under female age group and finished the weekend with 12 top 10 finishes, along with a fourth-place finish in the 100-m breast stoke.

This meet was a great warmup meet for Bronwyn, as she will be attending Swim Canada's Canadian Age Group Nationals in Calgary this weekend, along with fellow Glacier Bear Alexandra Gabor.

Bronwyn also received $125 at the AAA championships for being the best swimmer from the Northern B.C. region.

'Bronwyn has really developed her stroke,' said Kathy Zrum, a coach for the Glacier Bears. 'Her back stroke and fly are really good and she does really well in the IM, which is using all the strokes.

'It's nice if you can be sort of an all around swimmer, instead of just having one or two events you're good at.'

In the very competitive field of the senior men's 50-m freestyle race, Brendan achieved a qualifying time for the age group nationals. He needed to swim a 26.0 and finished the race with 25.99, placing him 23rd.

'B.C. is just such a competitive province,' said Kathy. 'Most of the swimmers going to national and international events now are from B.C. It's tough to compete against.

'Brendan's time he got in the 50-m free, in Alberta would have placed him in the top five. In B.C., he ended up 23rd. That's how much tougher it is.'

Still, Brendan became one of the first 'homegrown' male Glacier Bears to achieve a club nationals qualifying time, which is great for the club. The Bears have been boasting national-level female swimmers for the past several years, so it's nice to finally have a male swimmer moving up to that level, said Kathy.

'It just shows how well this club is doing. The next stream of kids coming up is doing really well, too.'

That's good news considering the Bears are losing some of their top swimmers every year to college and university.

Last year, Yeulet, Lynsey and Spencer took off for Alberta Spencer swam with the University of Lethbridge and this year O'Connor will be leaving.

Thompson also graduated from high school this year, but is planning to attend Yukon College in the fall, so he will continue to swim with the Bears.

Most of the Bears who aren't heading out of town will now enjoy a two-month break before the short course season begins in the middle of September.

Bronwyn and Gabor will of course be going to nationals and then Gabor will compete at the Pan-Pacific Trials in Montreal at the end of July.

The 11 club records set at the AAA championships were as follows:

Bronwyn Pasloski

200-m IM, 400-IM (prelims),

400-m IM (finals)

Tanner Cassidy

100-m fly, 200-m fly, 1,500-m free

Brendan Zrum

50-m free 100-m free

Spencer Edelman

50-m free 200-m free

Geoffrey Thompson

400-m IM

Here are the full results from the B.C. AAA championships in Victoria:

Female 12 & Under

Kirsten Berube (11)

20th 50-m free, 31.61

25th 100-m free. 1:09.97

25th 200-m free, 2:30.50

28th 200-m IM, 2:54.45

31st 200-m back, 2:55.20

35th 100-m back, 1:24.22

Female 14 & Under

Bronwyn Pasloski (14)

Fourth 100-m breast, 1:17.77

5th 50-m free, 28.28

6th 200-m IM, 2:30.73

7th 400-m IM, 5:21.94

7th 100-m fly, 1:10.40

9th 200-m back, 2:35.39

10th 100-m back, 1:12.55

10th 200-m breast, 2:50.75

Female Senior

Erin O'Connor (17)

24th 100-m breast, 1:23.73

36th 100-m fly, 1:14.98

40th 50-m free, 29.64

47th 100-m back, 1:17.21

49th 200-m IM, 2:39.31

62nd 100-m free, 1:06.03

Female Senior

Ariana Edelman (16)

37th 200-m back, 2:41.08

38th 100-m back, 1:15.89

46th 100-m fly, 1:16.40

54th 50-m free, 30.39

62nd 200-m IM, 2:44.31

73rd 100-m free, 1:08.80

Female Senior

Kayla Yeulet (18)

47th 100-m fly, 1:16.74

54th 100-m back, 1:18.33

54th 200-m free, 2:24.01

57th 50-m free, 30.48

63rd 100-m free, 1:06.42

Male Senior

Tanner Cassidy (15)

18th, 1,500-m free, 18:28.58

24th 200-m fly, 2:37.85

26th 100-m fly, 1:05.44

48th 200-m free, 2:14.13

55th 100-m free, 1:00.42

61st 50-m free, 28.28

Male Senior

Geoffrey Thompson (17)

24th 1,500-m free, 18:54.98

28th 200-m breast, 3:01.75

36th 400-m IM, 5:28.80

51st 200-m free, 2:15.77

55th 200-m IM, 2:35.32

67th 100-m free, 1:02.39

Male Senior

Brendan Zrum (17)

23rd 50-m free, 25.99

35th 100-m free, 57.70

40th 100-m fly, 1:09.93

41st 200-m back, 2:33.03

42nd 200-m free, 2:12.62

54th 100-m back, 1:12.41

Male Senior

Spencer Edelman (18)

44th 100-m fly, 1:13.33

58th 50-m free, 27.81

59th 200-m free, 2:22.11

64th 100-m free, 1:01.81