When you think of great sports clubs in Canada that constantly produce impressive athletes, results and championships, you look to places in Ontario, Quebec or Alberta.

Somewhere in the near future, you could be adding the Yukon and the Whitehorse Glacier Bears swim club to that list.

OK, so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, at least at this point, but the Whitehorse Glacier Bears swim club is not just making noise in the pool these days, they're causing huge waves. And they're doing so at all levels, from ages nine to 17.

The highest competitive swimmers from the club have been impressive on the western and national scene the past few years now, with former Glacier Bear MacKenzie Downing currently in her second year with the University of Victoria swim team. The usual suspects like Alexandra Gabor, Bronwyn Pasloski and Tanner Cassidy played a big role in close to 200 club records being broken last season.

But now, the younger up-and-comers the Kodiaks, Polar Bears and Black Bears are making their presence felt at Outside competitions as well.

'When you look at (the Glacier Bears) having 80 kids, it's amazing what we've accomplished,' said Kathy Zrum, one of the coaches with the club. 'I think people are really starting to realize who the Glacier Bears are.'

Last weekend, Zrum took six athletes to an age group swim meet in Calgary, where they competed against more than 400 swimmers. Kirsten Berube, Ashley Bray, Kate McArthur, Craig Berube, Connor Oliver-Beebe and Jason Zrum made the trip to Alberta. For Bray, Oliver-Beebe and Jason, it was their first meet outside of the Yukon.

In total, the six swimmers had 30 personal bests at the swim meet.

'All the swimmers rose to the occasion and did what they had to do,' said Zrum. 'The technique they're working on in practice is coming together for them.

'It was our first time at this meet, so we weren't sure how we would fit it, but they did very well. When you've got 400 kids in a competition, it's different. The warmup is a whole new experience. You have 30 kids in one lane and you're running into each other, getting elbows. It was a good experience for them.'

Craig, Oliver-Beebe and Jason each swam the 1,500-metre freestyle for the first time.

At the end of the race, Craig summed up the long distance by saying he, 'felt like a noodle.' At nine years old, Craig was the youngest male to swim in the event, and he finished in 29 minutes with a first place in the 10-and-under age group.

Jason placed 18th while Oliver-Beebe was 19th, both posting a time of 23 minutes.

Kirsten swam the 800-m freestyle for the first time, while McArthur improved on her best time by achieving a Swim B.C. AA qualifying time. In total during the weekend, McArthur achieved AA times in three events the 200-m individual medley (IM) and 800-m freestyle as well while Kirsten also achieved AA times in the 200-m IM, 200-m breaststroke, 200-m backstroke and 100-m backstroke.

Bray finished the weekend meet with three personal bests in the 100-m freestyle, 100-m breaststroke and 200-m IM.

On the boy's side, Oliver-Beebe achieved the AA qualifying time in the 400-m freestyle while Jason swam a fast 200-m individual medley and also achieved the AA qualifying time.

'I thought I did OK,' said Oliver-Beebe about the meet. 'I think I could have done better. Going to bed earlier would have helped (some warmups started at 7 a.m.).'

'They had weird times at that meet,' added Jason, who thought his best performance was in the 100-m backstroke, where he shaved off about four seconds.

The Glacier Bears had four swimmers in the Saturday evening finals, with McArthur finishing seventh in the 100-m freestyle A final and ninth in the 200-m IM B final. Kirsten placed 14th in the 200-m IM B final and eighth in the 100-m fly A final.

On the boy's side, Craig placed sixth in the 100-m fly A final and Jason placed 12th in the 100-m backstroke B final.

'(The finals were) more learning how to mentally be able to deal with that,' explained Zrum, who eded up buying her fair share of smoothies for each of the swimmers, after promising them the treat if anyone made AA times.

'You give it all you have in the preliminaries just to make the final, and then you have to be ready to get back in the pool and do it again a few hours later. And all of them, when they went into their finals, knocked off more time.'

While the younger swimmers were posting impressive first-time results in Calgary, their more seasoned counterparts, the Silvertips, were also a force at the Christmas Cracker meet in Victoria. Overall, 31 club records fell at the meet.

Gabor continued her sizzling pace in the pool, setting a national age group record, in 12-and-under, for the 200-metre short course freestyle, as well as a provincial age group record for the 400-m freestyle.

Gabor swam to first-place finishes in the 50, 100, 200, 800 and 1,500-m free, as well as a third place in the 400-m free.

Meanwhile, Pasloski swam in the finals in six events in the girls' 13-14 category, placing second in the 100-m breast, third in the 50 and 200-m breast, fifth in the 200-m IM and 100-m back, and seventh in the 50-m free.

Cassidy also made it to a number of finals in the boys' 13-14 age group, finishing third in the 50-m fly, fourth in the 100-m fly and 800-m free, and sixth in the 200-m fly, 200-m IM and 100-m free.

Other results included a third in the 50-m kick for Arianna Edelman, fourth in the same event for Alan Lebedoff, and a seventh-place finish for Geoffrey Thompson in the boys' 15-and-over 1,500-m free. Lebedoff also placed eighth in the 100-m back in the boys' 15-and-over category.

Edelman met the AAA standard in the 100 and 200-m back, while Hayley Bielz made AA times in six events at the meet. Erin O'Connor, Jennifer Gonnet, Brendan Zrum and Francis Aubin all had personal bests in many of their events as well. The boys' 15-and-over relay team placed fourth in the 200-m freestyle relay and fifth in the 200-m IM relay.

'There were fantastic performances by all of them,' said Marek Poplawski, head coach of the Glacier Bears. 'There were best times by all the swimmers and records on top of that. Arianna had triple times, we were in some finals, there were 31 club records broke, and I think Tanner broke 10 of them.'

Cassidy quite possibly could have broken more records as well, but he injured his ankle in the last session at the meet, the 200-m fly, and ended up needing stitches. The 14-year-old wasn't at practice Wednesday, but Poplawski expects him back in the pool within a few days.

With a front row seat for Gabor's national-record setting swim, Poplawski summed it up as 'fantastic.' Gabor was originally hoping to set the Canadian age group record in the 1,500-m free, but started that race too fast and had to slow down by the end, said the coach. But she made up for it in the 200-m free.

'They all worked really hard and it's paying off,' he summarized. 'Everybody has different goals and they all accomplished them for now.'

The next meet for the Glacier Bears will be the AA championships at the end of January in Chilliwack, where Kathy hopes to take six or seven swimmers.

Poplawski will be with Gabor in Portland that same week, where the young athlete will compete with team B.C. at an age group meet.

Following that, a large group of swimmers will travel to the AAA championships in Surrey the first week of February. Then Gabor and Pasloski will be off the the Western championships in Winnipeg, also in February.

With the busy months ahead, the young swimmers are keeping their goals simple.

'I think (my goal) is mostly to get AA (times) in most of my events,' said Jason.

As for Oliver-Beebe, 'I'm just trying to beat Jason in the 1,500 (freestyle),' he laughed.