Five Whitehorse Glacier Bears spent the weekend in Surrey, B.C. for the B.C. AA Long Course Championships.

The swimmers had an extremely successful weekend, with 15-year-old Nadia Petriw earning five golds and two silver medals.

Petriw scored her golds in the 100-metre freestyle, 200-m freestyle, 400-m freestyle, 200-m individual medley and the 200-m backstroke. She won the two silver medals in the 50-m freestyle and the 800-m freestyle.

"Nadia Petriw was the clean-up artist for the team,” said assistant coach Jim Thompson, who accompanied the group down to B.C.

But Petriw wasn't the only one to have an awesome meet.

Joining her were Kate McArthur, Becky Leslie, Eddy Bourcier and Kevin Salesse.

In the 16 and over age category, Leslie won two silver medals in the 400 and 800-m freestyles, and a bronze in the 200-m breastroke. Her other finishes included a fourth in the 200-m individual medley and 11th in the 50-m freestyle.

Competing against Leslie in the 16 and over category was McArthur, who had great success in the 100-m breast where she won a bronze medal. Adding to her finishes, McArthur placed fourth in the 200-m backstroke, fifth in the 100-m backstroke, sixth in the 200-m breastroke and 100-m fly, seventh in the 100-m freestyle and eighth in the 50-m freestyle.

"Becky Leslie had some very good races,” Thompson said.

Bourcier swam in the 15-year-old category where he won a silver medal in the 400-m individual medley. He also placed fourth in the 200-m individual medley, fifth in the 200-m breastroke, seventh in the 100-m breast, 10th in the 400-m freestyle, 12th in the 100-m freestyle and 13th in the 50-m freestyle.

The AA meet was Salesse's first Outside meet. The 14-year-old has competed in meets in Fairbanks and Haines, Alaska, as well as local ones, but this was his first major competition. It was also Salesse's first meet in a long course pool.

The swimmer managed to score personal best times when he finished fifth in the 200-m individual medley, seventh in the 400-m freestyle, eighth in the 100-m backstroke, ninth in the 100-m breast, 11th in the 200-m freestyle and 13th in the 100-m freestyle.

Thompson was extremely happy with the performance the group gave.

"All the kids finaled,” he said. "They did quite well.”

All five swimmers train under Glacier Bears coach Marek Poplawski, with Thompson filling in a few times a week.

"Marek had them really well prepared, so it made my job easy,” Thompson said, adding that he is familiar with all five of the swimmers that attended the AA championships. "I know them all really well.”

The coach said the AA meet is a great one for first-timers like Salesse to start with, because the meet pairs peers together. Each swimmer went up against a group that had all achieved similar times.

The other four athletes have attended Outside competitions before.

The meet took place in a long-course pool. The difference between the long-course and the short-course is that swimmers do not have the advantage of pushing off the wall for speed as many times.

The short-course season generally runs through the winter, while the long-course meets take place in the summer.

Thompson said the meet showed the younger group the competitive side of swimming, without overwhelming them.

"I can't say enough about how well they all handled the pressure and got the job done,” he said. "They did very well.”

Thompson enjoyed accompanying the swimmers to the B.C. meet.

"It was a pleasure to have been with them,” he said.

Coming up for the Glacier Bears in July is a number of important meets including; the B.C. AAA LC Championships in Kamloops, B.C., July 8-11; the Canadian Age Group Championships in Winnipeg, Man., July 23-26 and the Summer Nationals in Victoria, B.C., July 28-31.

"There's still some pretty big meets,” Thompson said.