Cadence Johns thought she’d be more exhausted after wrapping up a whirlwind two weeks of national level swimming.

Johns and Moose Jaw Kinsmen Flying Fins teammate Elyssa Tacchi closed a very successful week at the 2017 Canada Summer Games over the weekend in Winnipeg.

The two local swimmers put together some strong finishes and posted personal best times while competing with Team Saskatchewan at the Games.

“It was really fun, I’m so glad I went,” said Johns. “The experience was amazing to be a part of Team Saskatchewan and being able to compete against B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and athletes from all over Canada was just amazing.”

Prior to heading to the Games, Johns and Tacchi were in Toronto for the Canadian Junior Championships the week before.

Tacchi said she learned a lot about herself as a swimmer over the course of the two weeks.

“Definitely matured a bit and learned different techniques and strokes and how to get a little faster,” she said.

Johns ended up making it into four B finals as an individual and also picked up a pair of top-10 finishes with Team Saskatchewan in the relays.

“There was a lot of really, really fast people there, so I just had to push myself to do my best and that’s what I got,” said Johns.

Johns ended up posting personal bests in five out of her seven events.

Her best finish was in the 200-metre backstroke where she finished second in the B final and tenth overall with a time of 2:26.06, which was 2.35 seconds better than her previous personal best.

Johns was able to take 7.76 seconds off her personal best time in the 400-metre individual medley, finishing with a time of 5:16.26, which was good enough for third in the B final and 11th overall.

She was a part of Saskatchewan’s sixth place finish in the 4x100-metre and seventh place finish in 4x50-metre medley relays.

“I pushed myself and I got PBs, which is what I wanted going into the Canada Games,” said Johns.

Tacchi picked up one top-10 finish in the 4x50-metre medley relay, coming in seventh place with Team Saskatchewan. She posted a personal best time of 35.19 seconds, swimming the 50m breaststroke length of the relay.

Tacchi said the race that she was coming away the most happy about was the 200-metre breaststroke where she took 0.24 seconds off her personal best time and finished seventh in the B Final.

“I got under 2:50, which is a pretty good bench mark for me and came out pretty good,” she said.

In the 50m breaststroke, Tacchi finished third in the B final for an 11th place finish overall.

Despite placing 46th in the 50m freestyle, Tacchi shaved 2.31 seconds off her personal best time, finishing in 30.73 seconds.

“It was a really good experience to be able to race against those top in the country people,” said Tacchi. “I saw where I need to improve to continue competing at that level.”

Both swimmers are walking away happy with the experience that they gained over the past two weeks.

Johns said it just pushes her to want to continue to improve.

“I learned that I love the sport and I want to keep competing at high level meets like this,” she said.