Spring Sprint Cup

Inconnu Spring Sprint Cup

This past May long weekend the Fort St. John Inconnu Swim Club welcomed a small group of Grande Prairie Piranhas to dual in the Spring Sprint Cup. The meet was dedicated to one of our own teammates, Tegan Nielsen. Through a bake sale, along with individual and corporate generosity, we were able to raise over $4,300. The meet was a short, two-day affair with 22 events being contested across 5 age groups.

For many swimmers this was their first-time racing since our last home meet in December, for a few it was their first time on the blocks this season. You could see the desire in their eyes and intensity in their efforts as they raced to impress. The results spoke for themselves as every Inconnu swimmer at the meet garnered at least one lifetime best swim. Despite the short breaks between many of their races, the swimmers took up the challenge by showing heart and determination in each effort.

Others at the meet had recently competed in Grande Prairie’s Northern Lights swim meet and were looking to match or better their times from that competition. The short course pool format allowed for lots of swimmers to more easily try events and races they may not be accustomed to. Many of our younger swims took advantage of the home pool environment as we saw them compete in 100m and 200m races for the first time, graduating from the 25’s and 50’s.

The first day featured two rapid fire sessions with all strokes being swam across distances from 25 to 400m. The cheers from parents in the bleachers and teammates along the side of the pool filled the pool deck with a palpable energy.  Swimmers were given an hour long break after the first six events before coming back for another six events and finishing the day off with a relay. The day saw a multitude of best times and smiles from both teams.

The same energy was brought to pool deck the following sunny Sunday morning. The swimmers shined in the pool as they raced from end to end. A true win of the weekend was watching the sportsmanship and friendship spread across pool deck. Whether it was the officials and parents on deck cheering on the swimmers, regardless of team; or the swimmers congratulating each other after races.  With some of the nerve taken off the swimmers from past meets – reminder than we were fully sidelined from meets in 2020-21, with the beginning of this season being the first time racing in almost 2 years – the swimmers came in with a much more comfortable attitude that allowed them to take in the full experience.

By the end of the meet swimmers had gained a total of 214 lifetime bests, a rate of 68%, and about 30 swimmers swam in a 100m or 200m race they had never competed in before.

Sprint Cup awards were given to the swimmer with top aggregate points across the four stroke 25’s (8&U,9-10) or 50’s (11-12,13-14,15&O)

8&U Boys: Marco Modde INCONNU                                           8&U Girls: Alexandra Cruz GPP

9-10 Boys: David Brand INCONNU                                               9-10 Girls: Layla Waberski INCONNU

11-12 Boys: Ryder Modde INCONNU                                          11-12 Girls: Sire Oyedeji INCONNU

13-14 Boys: Mason Stirling INCONNU                                         13-14 Girls: Mya Waberski INCONNU

15&O Boys: Julien Kemp INCONNU                                             15&O Girls: Frankie Woods INCONNU

The team next returns to action in the pool down in Calgary for the Cascade Swim International on June 3-5. The group of Owen Lang, Alex McDonald, Ryder Modde, and Kieran Rogers will take on swimmers from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Texas.

At the end of June, a larger contingency of the team will make a trip to compete at the Northern & Interior Divisional Championships in Kelowna.

Josh