The 2019 Ryan Downing Memorial Invitational Swim Meet, hosted by the Whitehorse Glacial Bears was held on Nov. 8 and 9 and featured 92 swimmers from four swim clubs including the Glacial Bears.

Volunteer referee Nancy Telford came from Penticton, B.C. to mentor Whitehorse volunteers in training. The meet was held in three sessions and close to 50 volunteers were needed to run and officiate one session. The Canada Games Centre pool was a busy place.

The event was a “best times” meet and swimmers received ribbons for achieving best times in events.

For the Glacial Bears swimmers, it was their first meet with new head coach Carmen Escobar, who previously coached in Hamilton, Ont. for the Hamilton Aquatic Club.

Escobar started the job in September and said she has seen what the club’s swimmers have to offer. At the Ryan Downing meet, she said she wanted the swimmers to participate in as many events as possible.

“The main focus was to have them race a lot of events,” said Escobar. “We made them race their weaker events.”

The Glacier Bears go up to U17 and Escobar said for swimmers falling in that age category it’s all about making them well-rounded athletes.

“That’s my approach,” said Escobar. “I believe all swimmers should be good at all strokes. Of course, they will show to be stronger in one stroke but this will help them raise the bar.

“They are all understanding. Right now they may be out of their comfort zones but who cares.”

Through practice and their first meet, Escobar said she is developing a good relationship with the swimmers.

“We are establishing a good relationship,” said Escobar. “I can be a tough coach but you got to make it fun so they buy-in.”

Escobar said most of the Glacier Bears competed in the 200 IM, which was Ryan Downing’s favourite event. The 200 IM encompasses all four strokes, butterfly, breast, backstroke and freestyle.

This was featured with preliminaries on Friday night as the first event. The semi-finals were held Saturday morning and the finals that night. The top eight racers would have done the event three times.

Mia Barrault, winner of two medals at the Western Canada Summer Games, was the fastest woman in the event finishing at 2:35:57. Coral Ridinger of the Porter Alberni Tsunami Swim Club came second and Glacier Bear Brynna Lalonde came third.

Thomas Gishler shaved three seconds off his time in the 200 IM men’s final to win in 2:25:90. His Glacier Bear teammates Thomas Bakica and Alex Petriw came in second and third respectively.

The meet also had a 50-metre eliminator race held on Saturday evening. The top eight girls and boys swim consecutive 50m freestyle races in a row, eliminating two swimmers each heat, until a winner is decided.

Gishler won the event men’s finals in 29.94. Aidan Harvey came second and Petriw came third.

The top three women were all very close. Amelia Ford came first in 30.56. Hannah Kingscote was close behind in 30.72 and Emily Vangel was third in 30.87.

Up next for the Glacier Bears will be a meet in Victoria in December. Escobar said the Ryan Downing meet was used for training but when they travel next that won’t be the case.

“The focus will be on performance,” said Escobar. “They will be resting a little bit so they can show how fast they can go.”