ESTEVAN - The Estevan Sharks water polo club hosted their home tournament on Oct. 23 at the Estevan Leisure Centre.
The weather conditions impacted the turnout slightly for the tournament, but the athletes who came had a great time.
The morning started at 9 a.m. with the atom girls competing. The Estevan Sharks played against the Regina Armada Orange, as well as a combined Weyburn Hurricanes and Saskatoon Pirates entry.
With only three teams, the round robin consisted of teams playing each other twice, and then the top two teams competed for first and second place. Estevan placed third, but had well-played games, swimming hard each time they were in the pool.
Jennika Linthicum scored seven goals, Marlow Molstad threw in six goals, Blaire Wilson had three goals and Jillian Rosengren scored once. Meredith Knoll, Rymma Dubchak, Sofiia Dotsenko and Viktoriia Maydanska rounded out the team, which won one game at the tournament.
Midday brought the largest group to the pool, the minis division, which is for athletes under 10 years of age. The Estevan Sharks had three of the six teams entered in the age group, and each team played five games. It was a long and well played tournament for the kids. The host Sharks had white, blue and purple teams.
Sharks Purple athlete Jaxson Ward scored 16 goals, Elijah Vanstone had five goals, Grace Trepanier in her first tournament notched four, and Ayla Smelt and Matvii Maidanskyi each scored once. Rosalie Horrocks and Simon Hall swam hard to assist their team to their four wins.
Sharks Blue had some hard-fought games and came out with one win. Jaxon Reinhardt scored 14 of the team’s goals, Eoin Jones scored eight, Brynna Sherling tossed the ball in for two goals, and Laine Petterson chipped in the last of this team’s goals. Nicolai Mitchell, Aksel Senholt and Jackson Prefontaine rounded out the team for this tournament.
For the Sharks White, Eli Sclear and Raymond Johnson both scored four of the team’s goals and Willow Van Sickle scored their final goal in their games. Sawyer Klotz, Gavin Tinant, Leighton Petterson and Milana Dotsenko played hard in every game but the Sharks White missed out on a win.
To wrap up the day, the atom boys played. There were only three teams at this tournament with the Estevan Sharks playing the Weyburn Hurricanes and Regina Armada Orange. The boys played fast-paced, nail-biting games against the other teams.
They faced the Weyburn Hurricanes in the semi-finals and then the Regina Armada Orange in the final in a back-and-forth game that Regina won 10-8. During the six games, Carter Yunick scored 22 goals, Hudson Enns tossed in 17, Carter Smelt had seven, Dalton Maley threw for five, Samuel Boal scored three and Sawyer Bomberak had one. Langston Sherling, Sebastian Martens and Kade Herperger also swam and worked hard to help their team with their three wins and a tie in the round robin.
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The Sharks U15 and open players competed in their first tournament of the year at the Lawson Aquatic Centre in Regina on Oct. 15 and 16.
The U15s played with and against other athletes from Weyburn, Regina and Saskatoon on Oct. 15. The U15 girls were coached by Neal Linthicum and joined by two Weyburn players to round out their team. They played four hard and fast-paced games, coming out with one win.
Mahlyn Bomberak emerged with eight goals, Ryan Hoeving had seven, Marlow Molstad scored twice in her first U15 tournament, and Jennika Linthicum came out with one. Weyburn players Maria Zaika and Sawyer Tollefson were vital players but did not score.
Keegan Mennie-Kindlein and Malcolm Sherling joined the Regina Armada White team. They played four times but missed out on a win at this tournament. Mennie-Kindlein came out with four goals, while Sherling tried hard in his first bantam tournament and was rewarded with one goal.
The following day, Bomberak jumped back in the pool to swim for the Regina Armada Black in the open division, which is for individuals older than 15, and she scored one more time in this division during her two games. Meenie-Kindlein swam with the open boys for three games and his team had tied two of those games.
"The Estevan Sharks are very proud of all our players that attended the first Community League tournament of the season,” the club said in a news release. “Congratulations on all that you accomplished this past weekend and wishing you all the best in the pool during this season.”
