The area's swimming talent has shone at the Australian Age Championships in Adelaide, eclipsing personal bests and powering their way to finals berths.
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Tamworth City's Amelia Simm, Alex Hayes, Tilani Smith, Ella Fittler and James Ryan, 360 Scully Park's Bella Pollard, Kootingal-Moonbi's Jack Mitchell and Swimming Gunnedah's Tahlia Smith all took to the water against the best in the country.
Simm and Hayes lead the way with both making A finals: Simm in the 15 years 100m breaststroke and 400m individual medley and Hayes in the 16 years 200m breaststroke.
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In what was her last age nationals Hayes also won the 50m B final and was second in the 100m while Simm finished second in the B final for her 50m breaststroke.
It was a great result, and highlighted what was overall a strong performance from the Sharks' quintet.
"They did very well," coach Nicholas Monet said.
He was especially happy to see so many new pbs set.
"It was very good," he said.
"Because the goal always at this high level of competition is to perform at your best and that's what everybody kind of did".
It was a bit of an unknown going in how they would perform with their preparation a bit disjointed, and then the external factors associated with competing at that level.
Monet noted Ryan's effort in clocking a two second pb in his 15 years 400m IM.
He was down a bit on confidence after swimming well outside his pb at the Country Championships.
Smith also swam a "good pb" in her 14 years 100m breaststroke.
"Her 200 breast was very good too," he said.
"When you look at it, she's not too far off the finals".
Fittler missed most of the winter so was playing catch-up a bit.
"She just went to have a go and see where she was at.
"Set a benchmark and reset," Monet said.
Pollard meanwhile finished 20th in the 15 years girls 200m butterfly while Mitchell, swimming for Knox Pymble, just missed the B final in his 14 years 50m backstroke. He also swum the 50m butterfly.
At what was her first nationals, Tahlia Smith competed in the 13 years 50m butterfly, and 50 and 100m freestyle and came away with new pbs in two of her three events.
The championships were streamed on Amazon Prime, which Monet said is a great thing for the club.
"I think it's inspired a lot of swimmers in our team," he said.
They can see what they can get to if they work hard.
It was great too for everyone to be able to follow on from home.
The club has in recent years consistently had multiple nationals qualifiers. This season they had eight all up with Augustin and Clementine Monet and Marcus Ryan (he was unable to compete due to COVID) qualifying for the open water championships.
And there is another to come with Hayes heading back down to Adelaide next month for the Australian Championships, which will also double as the trials for the FINA World Championships and Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
"Usually the opens (championships) are right after the age group so it's complicated to stay the two weeks," Monet said.
"Because they've been postponed, we thought she could have a go."
She has qualified for the three breaststroke distances.
