The Man/Sask AA Provincial Championship earlier this month couldn’t have gone much better for the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Flying Fins.

Seven of the eight swimmers that the Flying Fins sent to the event came home with a medal, while five of eight swimmers were able to swim 100-percent personal best times.

All that combined for the Flying Fins to win the Top Saskatchewan Small Club and Overall Small Club awards.

“The swimmers just swam spectacular, everyone had an outstanding swim, as a team they swam 91-percent lifetime bests, so it was just amazing,” said Flying Fins coach Gord Shields. 

“We had a great past six-to-eight weeks of training in the month of November and into December and the swimmers have been putting a great effort at training and it usually results in good performances when they’re like that.”

13-year-old Danael Liew led the way for the Flying Fins as he collected four gold and three silver. He finished in first or second in every race that he entered on the weekend

Cadance Johns, 13, wasn’t too far behind Liew as she earned three gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the meet. Her best swim came in the 200-metre backstroke where she was able shave 6.30 seconds off her lifetime best.

“They medalled in every swim that they had and went 100-percent lifetime bests, so it was just a great meet for both swimmers,” said Shields.

14-year-old Olivia Harvey, who is new to the team, also had a strong meet with two silver and four bronze, while 11-year-old Chloe Johns had two silvers. Reese Koch won a bronze in the 50m backstroke and Elyssa Tacchi claimed silver in the 50m breaststroke.

The 13-14 girls relay team of Johns, Harvey, Koch and Elizabeth Murphy scored two bronze medals as well at the meet.

This was the final meet as head coach for Shields, who is retiring from coaching as of Jan. 1. He said it was nice to see the team put together such an outstanding performance in his final meet.

“It was pretty emotional knowing that it was going to be the last swim meet that I had with them, but it was sure a great way to finish off, it was a memorable weekend, all eight swimmers swam fantastic, they all had an amazing individual swim, so I was really pleased with how it all ended,” said Shields.

Laura Harvey will be taking over for Shields in 2018.

Click here for full results from the meet.