A total of 13 athletes from the Estevan area were part of Team Sask in water polo’s U16 National Championship League last weekend in Regina.
The U16 girls team, which featured many athletes who were part of Estevan Sharks teams in the past, featured six players from Estevan with Mikayla Hack, Josie Andrist, Alex Andrist, Gabbi Jocelyn, Katryna Heleta and Breanna Sinclair from Oxbow all suiting up for Team Sask.
The U16 boys team had seven players from Estevan with Cameron Gillingham, Tristan Threinen, Lyndon Sauder, Logan Dalziel, Lucas Dzeryk, Ethan Elliott and Nathan Threinen.
In total, the girls U16 Team Sask came away with a record of 4-2, with both of their losses by one point. In the first game, Team Sask narrowly beat Edmonton Tsunami (whose roster includes former Estevan resident Alia Burlock) 14–13. Alex Andrist had four goals in the early victory.
In their second match, Team Sask fell to Pacific Storm 7-6, with Hack scoring two goals. Later in the day, they took on Fraser Valley, and in the narrow 12–11 win, both Alex Andrist and Hack scored two goals. The Fraser Valley team was very experienced, with most players in their last year of eligibility in the U16 age group. Team Sask has only one player born in 2003, while every other swimmer is in her first year of eligibility, including all members from Estevan.
The team faced two Calgary Renegades teams next, and put points on the board in two easy victories. Josie Andrist scored one in the first 17–7 victory, while Hack scored four in the 13–8 win. In the final game of the tournament for Team Sask, they once again faced Fraser Valley. After falling behind 15–10 in the last quarter, they staged a big comeback to come to within a single goal in the final 23 seconds. Hack took a dramatic final shot with no time on the clock but it was stopped by the Fraser Valley goalie.
On the boys side of the tournament they came with two wins and four losses, which considering the age of the team was an excellent start. Coach Victor Bautista from Regina commended the boys for a great weekend of growth and development, for as he noted most of the team is only bantam aged players so for them to pull of any wins bodes extremely well for this team over the next few years as their players develop.
In their first match of the weekend, the boys team fell to Fraser Valley 14-5 with Gillingham scoring one of the goals. Later that day Team Sask then took on Manitoba where they took the lead right from the first period and held it for a 12-8 win, with Gillingham once again seeing the back of the next for a goal.
On Saturday, Team Sask then faced two experienced B.C. teams where they fell 16-5 against the West Coast Warriors and 20-4 against Pacific Storm. Tristan Threinen scored one goal and Gillingham scored three goals against the West Coast Warriors and Gillingham scored another goal on the Pacific Storm.
For their final game of the weekend Team Sask faced off against Calgary Wild on Sunday afternoon for what was probably their most unified team game. The boys pulled off an energetic game and came away with another win of 11-9 where Lyndon Sauder, Tristan Threinen and Gillingham all scored goals in the game.
The next action for both teams will be in Calgary in early January.
