The Ponoka Pool Sharks were snapping up the hardware, and the cookies, at an annual classic event over the weekend.
Dubbed the Cookie Classic, because swimmers can get a homemade chocolate chip cookie for earning a personal best time, the swim meet saw the local club ride the wave to a total of 83 medals and 72 new personal bests.
Both of those figures were top among the seven clubs taking part — which included Edson, Athabasca, Sylvan Lake, Stettler, Spruce Grove and the Penguin club from Edmonton.
The club’s head coach Bobbie-Jo Christensen was pleased with the turnout.
“It all went great and all of the kids had a lot of fun,” she said.
“And while the medal count was good, this event is all about the kids doing their best and working on getting that new best time.”
This year was also a bit different in that, while the boys and girls compete in separate classifications, they were put into mixed heats.
For the Pool Sharks on the boys side, there were three that came away with medals in all six of their events and three more that medaled in five events.
Joseph Day, in the 14-15 year old class, won six golds in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle races as well as in the 50m and 100m butterfly and the 200m medley. Also in that class was Isaac Froese, who won gold in the 100m breaststroke plus the 100m and 400m medley to go with a pair of silver in the 50m and 200m free and a bronze in the 100m free.
The other six medal winner was Lucas Suarez in the 12-13 year old class, earning gold in 100m and 400m free plus in the 100m and 200m medley to go with silver in both the 50m free and 50m butterfly.
Benjamin Day and Graysen Jorgenson, both in the 9 and under, and Samuel Day in the 14-15 year class all left with five medals each.
That said, there were a total of 46 personal best times from the Ponoka boys, which included Connor McDonald shaving a staggering eight seconds from his time in the 25m free in the 12-13 class by posting a 20.24 second run.
On the girls side, three Ponoka swimmers — Tea Maxwell, Jill Waddell and Blair Ross — took home the most hardware.
Maxwell and Waddell, both in the 16 and over class, captured six medals apiece. Waddell had three gold (100m and 200m free, 100m butterfly) and three silver (50m free, 100m breaststroke, 200m medley), while Maxwell earned two gold (50m and 100m breaststroke) to go with two silver (200m free, 100m medley) and two bronze (50m free, 200m medley).
Ross, in the 14-15 class, took a silver in the 100m breaststroke and then three bronze in the 100m and 200m free plus the 100m butterfly.
