Emma Moore from the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Flying Fins pushes off at the start of the girls 11-12 division 100-metre backstroke on Sunday.

Getting the first outdoor meet of the season under their belts was a big step for the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Flying Fins and they handled themselves well over the weekend.

“We had some really good swim, there was some long days, but they held in there and did some really good racing,” said Gord Shields, first-year head coach of the Flying Fins.

49 members of the local club hit the pool over the weekend for the 48th annual Mike Mintenko Summerfest meet in downtown Moose Jaw, with many of them posting personal bests during their events.

“They were racing right to the wall, right to the end of the race, which as a coach you really like to see them doing that,” said Shields. “Our younger swimmers did very well, there was a lot of personal best times and really good efforts in all their swims, it was really good to see.”

Joey Derksen hit the pool on Saturday before taking Sunday off, but he was still able to wrap up a first place finish in the 11-and-under boys 100-metre fly, a second place finish in the 50-metre free and a fifth place finish in the 200-metre free.

“I did very well, although I only swam for one day, I felt I did very good,” said Derksen.

Moose Jaw Kinsmen Flying Fins swimmer Darian Grill competes in the boys 12-13 100-metre backstroke on Sunday at the Phyllis Dewar Outdoor Pool.

The swimmers have been putting in plenty of work in the indoor pool over the winter, but just moved outside a few weeks ago in preparation for the summer season. This event served as the first of the outdoor season for the team and Shields felt they handled themselves very well.

“Competing indoors and then moving to an outdoor pool is a completely different environment for them, so they really have to adjust to that,” said Shields. “This meet is a fun meet, but also getting that adjustment to swimming outdoors.

“It was a great experience for them, they swam well and we'll be able to use what they learnt this weekend at future meets.”

Derksen said he was able to handle the move outside well and actually prefers swimming outdoors.

“I like the outdoor pool a little bit because it just has a nice atmosphere,” he said. “The weather can change the feeling of the water, while the indoor pool is always so cold and I don't enjoy it as much.”

A neck and neck race during the 48th annual Mike Mintenko Summerfest Meet at the Phyllis Dewar Outdoor Pool on Sunday.

The Mike Mintenko Summerfest actually served as a great warmup event for some of the older swimmers in the Flying Fins as they will be heading down to the United States this coming weekend for another outdoor event.

“This was a great training session for that,” said Derksen.

Overall, Shields is coming away happy with how his team performed during their first outdoor meet of the year.

“We had some really good performance from some of our younger swimmers,” said Shields. “Cadence Johns and Austin Lin won a few races, so very pleased with how they performed overall.”

This year's Summerfest was one of the biggest in recent years with over 280 swimmers from around the province in the city for the event.