A young swimmer who lives in Estevan is ready to make her mark on the national swimming scene.

17-year-old Haley Copeland punched her ticket to the national qualifiers after placing third in the Junior Free Solo category at provincials earlier this year.

She was one of five swimmers from Saskatchewan who qualified in the solo category.

"I'm really excited to go. It'll be like my first time so it'll be cool to be able to compete against athletes across Canada," Copeland said. 

Copeland swims for the Weyburn Artistic Swimming Club. She's the only one on her team heading to the qualifiers.

"I'm excited, I'm nervous. I think that always comes with competing on a different level, but I'm excited," she said. "It'll be way different than what I'm used to."

To prepare, she says she's doing more specific training.

"More intense I guess...we're just adding on a couple extra hours to be able to prepare, and just more swimming I guess," Copeland said.

The Canadian National Artistic Swimming Qualifiers will be held in Saskatoon at the end of March. Copeland will swim on March 31.

"This is the first time Saskatoon has held them in a long time, so it's kind of cool that we'll get to compete in a home pool," she said.

Haley Copeland