Yukon swimmer Edouard Bourcier came home from Penticton with a fistful of gold this week, after cleaning up at the B.C. Winter AA Swimming Championships.

"The Whitehorse Glacier Bears once again showed that they are a force at all levels in swimming,” Gustav Gabor told the Star earlier this week, praising the two Yukoners who went down for the meet.

And Bourcier was a force indeed, taking gold in the 100- and 200-metre breaststroke and in the 200-metre individual medley. In the individual medley race, swimmers must swim an equal distance in each of the four classic styles: breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and freestyle (most swimmers choose the front crawl).

The 14-year-old swimmer narrowly missed a fourth step up to the podium, coming in just 4/10ths of a second behind the bronze medal winner in the 100-metre freestyle category.

Bourcier came out of the meet with new personal-best times in every race he swam, Gabor noted.

Hailey Bielz, a coach and competitor with the Glacier Bears, was in Penticton as well. The 17-year-old made it to three finals and placed in the top 10 in most of her races: placing fifth in the 400-m freestyle, sixth in the 200-m backstroke, sixth in the 800-m freestyle, seventh in the 200-m individual medley, ninth in the 100-m backstroke and 10th in the 200-m freestyle.

Bourcier also placed 11th in the 100-metre backstroke.

The next swim meet for the Whitehorse Glacier Bears will be the Western Championships in Saskatoon, Sask. from Feb. 19 - 21, and Bronwyn Pasloski will be the sole representative for the Yukon at that meet.

Early in March, a contingent of Glacier Bears will travel to Victoria for the BC AAA Championships, March 4 -7.