Sharks score provincial medal haul

The Prince Albert Sharks Swim Club came home from the Manitoba-Saskatchewan provincials with a haul of seven medals.

Mitchel Robin, 15, led the team with three gold medals, a silver and a bronze at the meet which ended Sunday in Winnipeg.

Robin finished first in 50- and 100-metre backstroke and was part of the winning provincial relay team. He finished second in the 200-metre individual medley and earned bronze in the 200-metre backstroke.

Scott Mills won two silver medals in the 16-and-over division, placing second in the 50- and 100-metre backstroke.

Shay Daniels, Dylan McLeod, Brittnay Harvey, Jeremy Lucas, Anne Charles, Christina Charles, Danielle Lyons and Natasha Nagle also competed in Winnipeg and qualified for finals, but fell short of the medals.

Harvey said she wasn't satisfied with her results. Her top finish was 14th in the 100-metre backstroke.

Daniels said the training facilities the team currently has available might have hurt their chances at the podium.

"It was really hard for us, because this (Kinsmen Water Park) is a 20-metre pool, and this was a long-course meet so it was a 50-metre pool," she said.

"Based on our circumstances, we did pretty good."

McLeod agreed that the facilty has its shortcomings.

"We can't train backstroke in this pool either because there are no flags (to correctly time flip turns), so we don't have the best training conditions right now," he McLeod.

The Sharks are currently unable to practise at Frank Dunn Pool because it's closed for renovations, so they're left to work outdoors at Kinsmen until the pool at Carlton Comprehensive High School reopens after Labour Day.

Several swimmers will continue to practise at Kinsmen in preparation for two more major meets this summer.

Mills and Robin are headed to Montreal for the 18-and-under age-group nationals July 16-19. In August, Robin and Daniels will compete at the Canada Summer Games in Prince Edward Island. Harvey, McLeod and Lyons will attend the meet as alternates.

The Winnipeg meet was the last event for Rick Whitson as head coach of the Sharks. He has now moved to Regina to coach with the Regina Optimist Dolphins. He said fellow Dolphins coach Jeff Toth will look after the Sharks swimming at age-group nationals.

Returning as head coach of the Prince Albert club is Gord Shields, whom most of the Sharks are familiar with.

Shields has coached the Sharks on and off since the early 1990s, when he began an eight-year stint with the club. He also has experience coaching the Saskatoon Lasers.

"He's tough," Daniels said.

McLeod concurred: "We'll have to work really hard."

tpruner@paherald.sk.ca