麻豆社区

The bears have awoken.

The Whitehorse Glacier Bears, that is.

The local swim club was back in the water at the Canada Games Centre this past weekend for the Yukon Invitational Swim Meet.

The two-day meet began on Friday afternoon and wrapped up on Saturday evening.

Steph Dixon, head coach with the club, said the meet was a great opportunity for members of the team to bond across different divisions.

"Since we are the only swim club in the Yukon, and the only club attending the meet, we came up with an idea to try and make the competition more exciting for the kids,鈥� she wrote the Star in an email.

The entire club, across all ages and categories, were divided into three teams and instead of wearing their traditional green Glacier Bears swim caps, the teams were given red, blue and yellow caps to distinguish the teams.

"Instead of sitting at the meet with their regular swim group, that usually is around the same age and ability level, the kids were in teams with swimmers of all ages and ability levels from the different groups in the club; many had never met before,鈥� said Dixon.

"We had a competition going for the team with the most team spirit, which was apparent as the teams decorated their area of the deck with anything they could find of their team colours.

"Each team also came up with different cheers throughout the weekend. In the past, this meet has been so quiet with little cheering. This past weekend, it was hard to hear yourself think there was so much cheering going on.鈥�

The camaraderie and energy in the pool paid dividends as five records were set at the meet.

Adrian Robinson posted times of 40.12 and 1:28.21 in the boys 11-12 50-metre breast stroke and 100-m breast stroke.

On the girls side Rennes Linsday, Cassis Lindsay and Haley Braga each set record times in the 200-m fly, 100-m back stroke and 400-m individual medley.

Rennes Linsday and Emily Crist also qualified for the AA Championships set for June 22 to 24 in Victoria, B.C.

Dixon said the focus of the meet was to develop the swimmers and promote personal bests, encouraging the teams to achieve as many individual record times as possible and race against the clock rather than each other.

"I feel it is very important to promote self-improvement at all levels of the club,鈥� she said.

"It was great to hear the kids yelling 鈥業 got another best time!' all weekend instead of 鈥業 won!'

"I am very proud of all of the swimmers for their performances, team spirit, and leadership this weekend.鈥�