This past weekend the Estevan Sharks Water Polo club sent 8 teams to the League Finals in Regina. They returned with 4 medals: 2 gold and 2 silver.

Both of the 12U Atom girls dominated their age division, winning all games against the Regina teams. The Reef Sharks battled hard against the Tiger sharks in round robin play, but couldn't pull off a win. Tiger Shark Mahlyn Bomberak scored 5 goals in a row to lead her team to an 11-7 final over the reef sharks. The two sharks teams met again in the gold medal game. This time the Reef sharks were stronger, Jordyn Tarnes scored 8 of their 12 goals to beat the Tigers and win the gold medal. A highlight was 8 year old, Rookie Shark Ava Mainprize scoring her first ever Atom goal.

 

The two 12U Atom boys teams finished the season in 4th and 5th place. The boys made tremendous improvements from the start of the season to league finals. The coaches are very excited for the future seasons with these young athletes. Brothers Brooks and Royce Milford combined for no less than 8 goals throughout the tournament. 

 

The bantam U14 girls team had a very strong tournament.  The team consisted of 3 bantam-aged players Emily Tarnes, Sadie Smith and Alandra Young.  The rest of the team was made up of girls from the younger atom age division: Jordyn Tarnes, Lily Knoll, Prism Gooding and Emily Sauder.  The girls won their first game and tied the second against teams from Regina.  They fell short in the third game against a team from Regina, but their combined points for the day put them in the pool for the gold medal game.  They battled hard against the Battleship team from Regina but came up short.  They brought home the silver medal.

 

The Sharks sent two 14U Bantam boys teams.  The Reef Sharks played in the B pool and after 3 straight wins made it into the Semi-Finals where they faced off against the Regina Tugboats and after a close match won 8-5 and this moved them into the gold medal game.  Going back and forth with the strong Armada Dreadnoughts  the boys moved into a strong defensive play for the second half but couldn’t score any further goals and found themselves with a Silver finish and 6-8 lose

 

The Tiger Sharks had a harder go as they played in the A pool and consisted of a younger group of players.  The boys came out of the round robin with 1 win and 2 losses so that left them in the semi-finals against Regina Battleship.  The teams were very evenly matched but the Battleship boys held the Sharks at bay and secured a 3-1 win that left the Tiger Sharks out of the finals.

 

The young 16U Cadet team had a tough go against the older Regina teams and unfortunately came away with 3 tough losses during the weekend.  The coaches look forward to watching this team grow as only one of the boys (Cameron Gillingham) were actual Cadet age so as more of the Bantam boys move up this team will be the team to watch.

 

The 16U cadet girls captured the gold medal. Strong goalie skills from Josie Andrist made the difference in a tough pool of competition. The team played strong offense in the gold medal final. 14U player, Emily Tarnes, helped secure the gold medal by finding the net 4 times. 

 

The final league play for these teams will be March 30/31 in Saskatoon at Spring Provincial Finals.