Swimmer Erin McArthur is in the right company.

Last weekend, the Whitehorse Glacier Bear became the fourth club member to represent Team B.C. at the Pacific Coast All Star Meet, this year held in Gresham, Oregon.

That company includes Alexandra Gabor (2006, 2007), Bronwyn Pasloski (2007) and Haley Braga (2010).

Gabor was recently awarded a scholarship to Standford University. Pasloski is currently attending Indiana State University on a swimming scholarship.

And Braga, like McArthur, is continuing to rise.

McArthur managed two top 10 finishes last weekend in a highly competitive field that included Pacific Northwest Swimming (Washington State), Oregon Swimming,

Pacific Swimming (San Francisco Bay area), Southern California Swimming (Los Angeles area) and Swim BC.

"It was really different, because I've never raced with Americans (outside of Alaska), and they were really big, really tall, and I felt really short,” McArthur laughed.

"It was a little (intimidating), but I just focused on what I was doing,” she added.

McArthur finished sixth in the 50-metre breaststroke, seventh in the 100m breaststroke, 16th in the 50m backstroke, 18th in the 50m butterfly and 19th in the 100m butterfly, all in the 11-12 girls age category.

"I thought that I did good on my 50m breaststroke; my 100m breaststroke, I actually false started, at first. I thought I was going to get DQ'd, but I just got back on the block, and so they just let it go. I think I was focusing on how embarrassing it was instead of my race,” she said.

McArthur qualified for last weekend's event with strong qualifying times at the 2010 PCS Christmas Cracker SC Invitational meet in Victoria, B.C., in December, when she clocked a time of 1:18.07 in the 100m breaststroke, which was also good enough to clinch herself a spot at the Western Canadian Championships in Kamloops, B.C., in February.

She's hoping to swim at westerns and the BC AAA SC Championships in Victoria, B.C., in March, but will wait to decide.

McArthur got used to being a big fish in a small pond before competing in Oregon.

Not that she hasn't competed with Canada's best: most recently, at the Canadian Age Group Nationals in Winnipeg over the summer, she finished ninth in the 50m breaststroke and 10th in the 50m backstroke.

Competing last weekend, however, gave her another glimpse into the competition outside B.C.

"It's the best (competition) that I've ever seen, because I've always been pretty high up there in all my meets, but I had to fight to get in the top eight, and I only did it in a couple races,” McArthur said.

"It was nerve-wracking knowing that you really had to try so hard to try and get sixth or seventh instead of first and second. It was different.”

McArthur added that she devoted a large part of the competition to meeting new people.

"I've never actually met anyone outside of the Yukon, so I really wanted to meet my competition,” she said, adding that, if she could do it over again, she might shift her focus slightly.

"It was fun, that's basically what it was for me.

"I would maybe focus a little more on my races, because I was really concentrating on meeting new people, and the swimming kind of got pushed aside a little bit, which it shouldn't have, so I should have concentrated a little more.”