North & Interior Winter Divisional Championships

Josh Sorensen

Last weekend, February 25-27th, twelve Inconnu swimmers made the trip down south to sunny Penticton to compete in the North & Interior Divisional Championships. The meet provided the competitors a chance to race with some of the best swimmers our regions have to offer. Julien Kemp, Ryder Modde, Viggo Pedersen, Rylan Pomeroy, Finn Rogers, Kieran Rogers, Nate Rogers, and Mason Stirling represented our Men with Tegan Nielsen, Sire Oyedeji, Mya Waberski, and Frankie Woods representing our Women.

 

Right from the first session the Inconnu swimmers came in fired up, ready to represent both themselves and their team. After a great morning session where over half of the swims were lifetime bests, the swimmers elevated themselves to a new level securing 8 medals at a rate of 80% lifetime bests.  Five different swimmers, Ryder Modde (200 IM - Gold / 100 Bk - Silver), Nate Rogers (100 Bk - Gold / 400 Fr - Bronze), Julien Kemp (100 Bk - Silver), Kieran Rogers (50 Br - Bronze), and Mason Stirling (50 Br - Gold) all walked away with individual hardware and the relay team of Nate Rogers, Viggo Pedersen, Julien Kemp and Rylan Pomeroy closed off the night with Silver in the 200 Free Relay. The early success for the swimmers allowed for many of them to feel comfortable and confident heading into the rest of the meet.

 

Saturday brought the busiest day for the Inconnu swimmers as they stepped up to the blocks to race a total of 50 individual swims amongst themselves. Across these efforts the swimmers were able to come away with 35 new lifetime bests as well as a 9 medal haul. This time the hardware was taken by Ryder Modde (200 Fr - Silver, 50 Fl - Silver, 50 Fr - SIlver), Nate Rogers (200 Fr - Bronze, 200 Bk - Gold), Finn Rogers (100 Br - Silver), Kieran Rogers (100 Br - Bronze), and Mason Stirling (100 Br - Gold). Similar to Saturday night, a relay team consisting of Finn Rogers, Ryder Modde, Nate Rogers, and Mason Stirling ended the night off with a Bronze performance in the 200 Medley Relay. 

 

Despite the success the swimmers had been raking in over the weekend, they were not satisfied stopping there and came into a tough Sunday still looking to prove themselves. The team continued their positive steps, again with more than half their races being lifetime bests and still finishing off with 6 individual medals. The medal performances came from Mason Stirling (200 Br - Gold), Ryder Modde (100 Fr - Bronze, 50 Bk - Silver), Nate Rogers (100 Fr - Silver, 100 Fl - Gold), and Julien Kemp (50 Bk - Bronze).  


 

The team made sure their presence was known as they finished 6th overall out of 16 teams including finishing as the #2 Northern team after a great battle with Prince Rupert. Our boys put in an excellent showing that had them finish as the 3rd highest scoring men’s team at the meet beating heavy hitters from the Division such as the Kamloops Classics. Despite only bringing 4 girls to the meet, they all pulled their weight scoring valuable points for themselves and the team as they finished just outside the top 10 at 11th. Contributing to the scoring was also many of the other finals swims, where swimmers came in the top 10, gaining best times for themselves and valuable points for the team.

The meet showed itself to be an excellent racing environment for many of our swimmers. The competition level allowed for a lot of them to make second swims and get the experience of a true heats and finals meet. This was a great opportunity as we saw them take advantage of the second chance and improve upon their prelims time in finals.

Two swimmers at the meet, Ryder Modde and Nate Rogers, were able to pick up additional Provincial Qualifying times that will let them join teammates Owen Lang and Alex McDonald at Winter Provincial Championships in Victoria March 10-13th.


 

All Results

 

Kemp, Julien 

  • 50 Back - 3rd, 100 Free - 13th, 100 Back - 2nd, 200 Back - 4th, 200 Free - 10th, 400 Free - 10th, 800 Free - 9th 

Modde, Ryder

  • 50 Free - 2nd, 100 Free - 3rd, 200 Free - 2nd, 50 Back - 2nd, 100 Back - 2nd, 50 Fly - 2nd, 200 IM - 1st

Nielsen, Tegan

  • 100 Free - 8th, 50 Back - 10th, 100 Back - 12th, 200 Back 9th, 50 Fly - 7th, 200 IM - 19th

Oyedeji, Sire

  • 50 Free - 26th, 50 Back - 25th, 50 Breast - 18th, 100 Breast - 16th, 200 Breast - 19th

Pedersen, Viggo

  • 50 Free - 10th, 100 Free - 18th, 50 Back - 14th, 50 Breast - 5th, 100 Breast - 5th, 50 Fly - 10th, 200 IM - 13th

Pomeroy, Rylan

  • 50 Free - 12th, 100 Free - 20th, 200 Free - 14th, 400 Free - 11th, 50 Back - 7th, 100 Back - 8th, 200 Back - 6th

Rogers, Finn

  • 50 Free - 9th, 100 Free - 11th, 50 Back - 5th, 100 Back - 4th, 50 Breast - 4th, 100 Breast - 2nd, 200 IM - 11th

Rogers, Kieran

  • 50 Free - 7th, 100 Free - 6th, 200 Free - 6th, 50 Back - 10th, 100 Back - 7th, 50 Breast - 3rd, 100 Breast - 3rd

Rogers, Nate

  • 100 Free - 2nd, 200 Free - 3rd, 400 Free - 3rd, 100 Back - 1st, 200 Back - 1st, 100 Fly - 1st

Stirling, Mason

  • 50 Free - 9th, 50 Back - 6th, 50 Breast - 1st, 100 Breast - 1st, 200 Breast - 1st, 50 Fly - 9th

Waberski, Mya

  • 50 Free - 6th, 100 Free - 8th, 200 Free - 8th, 50 Back - 19th, 50 Fly - 18th

Woods, Frankie

  • 400 Free - 6th, 800 Free - 4th, 100 Back - 8th, 200 Back - 4th, 50 Fly - 11th, 100 Fly - 12th