Estevan's young swimming elite, the Sharks water polo club headed up to Saskatoon for the weekend for competition, and once again returned conquerors.

"We had five teams entered in the tournament, and 3 are actually coming home with gold this weekend," said Melanie Dzeryk

The gold winners were the Atom girls, who won the final with a shootout, and the Atom boys, who came out 12-7 in their own hard fought game.

The Bantam girls were unable to quite make it to the finals, but rocked the bronze medal game 9-8. The Bantam boys took a gold medal out of their shootout 8-7. The Cadet girls came home with a silver standing.

"All of our Sharks played really well. They came together as a team, practiced hard these last couple of weeks coming into provincials, and it just really showed across all age divisions. We had kids playing from 8 years old up to 16," Dzeryck added.

The teams will get a break over the holiday season before getting back at it with tournaments in January.

The submitted story is below...

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It was a great weekend in the pool for the Estevan Sharks as 7 teams travelled to Saskatoon this past weekend for the Winter Provincials and they came home with 5 medals overall.  3 GOLD medals were won by the Atom Girls Tiger Sharks, Atom Boys Great White Sharks and the Bantam Boys while the Cadet Girls secured SILVER and the Bantam Girls won BRONZE.  Throughout this 2 day tournament all age divisions of the Sharks worked hard and showed that they are the club in the province to beat.

The Cadet Girls took the silver medal.

In the Atom division the Sharks sent 4 teams with the Atom Girls Tiger Sharks and Atom Boys Great White Sharks bringing home Gold. Of the 4 teams entered the younger Atom Girls Bull Shark played four hard fought battles as the youngest and newest competitors in the winter provincials.  Although they played with excellent determination and huge smiles, they came out defeated in the round robin play.  These up and coming athletes displayed excellent sportsmanship and a true love of the game this weekend. The younger Atom Boys Sand Shark team, led by Jace Carritt, came together and played four tough matches. Although no wins this weekend, Karson Mvula our youngest player scored one goal and Brooks Milford scored two along with one other goal while subbing in for the Great White Sharks. With three first year players and being the first Provincial tournament for five of the seven boys, this was a great experience and you could see much improvement, especially in their final game!  Their coach Jason Dalziel looks forward to seeing this group of boys grow and move into a more leadership roles over the next few years.

The veteran Atom teams showed their skill this weekend with two Gold medals.  The veteran boys Great White Shark team dominated in the water right from their first game where they had a 16-0 win and Logan Dalziel shot 7 goals into the net during this game alone.  The second game against Regina saw the Sharks winning again with a 13-2 score and some great offense plays by Joshua Heleta and Kristian Baniulis.  The next two games had the boys winning 12-2, 11-1 where Lucas Dzeryk lead the team in scoring with 6 goals in the final game.  Coming into the Gold medal game the boys were favored to win, but they had a rocky first period where they were down, but they regrouped and coming into the second period Dierks Milford scored 3 goals and with some outstanding goalie work by Noah Mvula the boys came out on top with an 11-8 win and a Gold medal.

The veteran girls Tiger Sharks team also dominated in the water right from their first game where they had 3 straight easy wins for the girls but in the final round robin game it was a true nail biter and the girls left the game with a tie.  The Gold medal game was also very close with Lily Knoll doing a fantastic job in net for the Sharks all weekend.  With defensive leadership from Sadie Smith,  Emily Sauder put the pressure on the Regina Armada girls and with the help of teammates Jordyn Tarnes and Tayla Garvis all of the girls saw the back of the net with goals this weekend.  The team as a whole played really strong this weekend and earned their Gold medal.

The Bantam boys team had a great tournament in Saskatoon with a 3 wins and 1 loss on Saturday which would take them to the gold medal game on Sunday.   The boys started out playing a tough game against Weytoon on Saturday.  The first period was tough but they came out with a 7-5 victory with Cameron Gillingham scoring 4 of the 7 goals. Their second game against Patrol Ship proved to be just as tough. They kept ahead of Patrol Ship and at the end of the first period had a 3-2 lead. Newcomer to the Sharks Connor Piche kept the pressure on their defence and took some close call shots and the Sharks came out on top with a 6-4 win.  Their third game was once again to where they lost out but they won their fourth against Weytoon with a 7- 5 win. Sunday the boys played for the gold medal. They came out strong and determined with a score of 3-0 in the first period. They kept the pressure on for the next 3 periods but let some goals slip by them. They were tied 7-7 by the end of the 4th period with Tristan Threinen playing good offence and getting 4 goals for the Sharks. They would end up winning it in a shootout with their goaltender Lyndon Sauder saving two of the three shots which would lead to their victory and the Gold medal.  This is the first time the Bantam Boys have won gold at provincials.

The Bantam Girls won Bronze this weekend in a tough final game against Regina that ended in a 5-4 final.  Newcomer Adah DeLeeuw saw the back of the net with 2 goals  with another goal each from Katryna Heleta, Breanna Sinclair and Alexandra Andrist. The girls had great goaltending from Josie Andrist and Maria Baniulis all weekend.

And in the Cadet Girls category the Estevan Sharks pulled up a few younger players to complete the team for this tournament.  This group of girls won 2 games and lost 1 game before heading into the Gold medal game on Sunday morning.  For a team that was favored to win the match they found themselves heavily penalized in the game, with 7 expulsions and after the 5th, the Regina Armada team began taking penalty shots, scoring in both and making the final 0-6.   It was the final game of the tournament and many of the girls had been playing in multiple games that day and they just ran out of gas.  The score really does not tell of how well they played but they did come home with the Silver medal. 

The Estevan Atom Tiger Sharks girls took home gold.

 

The Bantam Boys nabbed a gold medal.