The Estevan Sharks water polo club was in action in Regina last weekend and showed improvement in all age categories.
The bantam girls continued their hot streak, winning every game of the tournament except the final where they fell in the last two minutes to the surging Weyburn Hurricanes. Mikayla Hack and Charlotte Andrist each scored two goals in the 7-5 loss to Weyburn.
The earlier games went easier for the Sharks with lots of scoring from the entire squad. Katrina Heleta and Alex Andrist each scored in the Sharks' 12-5 defeat of Regina Armada Grey.
In the following game, the Armada Orange squad had trouble finding the scoreboard in Estevan's 7-1 win thanks to Sharks' goalie Josie Andrist. To open the tourney, the Sharks came out strong to drop Weyburn 7-6 with Teaghan Hack scoring five goals.
The bantam boys had the top record among all clubs at the tournament through defeating Weyburn 8-5 in the opener before downing Regina Armada 6-5 in the following game. Estevan's Logan Marshall scored six goals in the games.
Marshall and his Sharks teammates also joined members from Saskatoon to form the Eskana team. In their final two games, Eskana came away with a spilt, slipping by the Weyburn Hurricanes 8-5 and then falling to Armada Grey in the final by a score of 10-9.
Dylan Prznyk and Sean Kim of Estevan made key saves in net while Cameron Gillingham shot two goals past the Weyburn goalie.
Earlier in the tournament, the Sharks entered a team in the under-16 competition, despite half their players aged 12 or younger.
The girls enjoyed the return of veteran player Jillian Fornwald, who contributed with six goals and stellar defence in her first tournament of the year. The Sharks won their first match up against Weyburn 8-3, but struggled to put points up against the older players and fell to both Regina Armada teams on scores of 11-5 and 6-5.
The Sharks battled Regina one more time in the final and, despite a two goal performance from Emily Marshall, they couldn't outscore Regina in the last minutes and dropped to a second place finish with the 9-8 loss.
The Sharks will be taking all age groups to the Winter Provincial Finals in Saskatoon in mid-December.
