Swim club coach talks about successes at Sadownik, JP Fiset meets

EDMONTON, AB. — After a slow start, the season is heating up in the pool for Fort St. John’s swim club, even as the weather continues to dip outside.

The Fort St. John Inconnu Swim Club ended November by hosting its Sadownik Memorial Invitational on November 29th and 30th.

Hosting swimmers from Grande Prairie and Peace River, Inconnu head coach Anton Titov said the meet was a “resounding success.”

Titov has been the head coach of the program since fall of 2024. In his short time, he guided both Leo Rossi and Ryder Modde to success at the B.C. and Alberta provincial championships, respectively.

“The massive improvements from grassroots levels up are evident,” Titov told Energeticcity.ca. “[Both] from previous competitions and every single competition from last season.

“It is a very young club. My oldest swimmer right now is 16 years old. The younger kids are [registering] qualifying times for B.C. divisionals, which is at the end of February.”

With such strong performances, nine children registered qualifying times for Edmonton’s JP Fiset Invitational swim meet, which took place starting on Thursday, December 11th.

However, other commitments and scheduling meant only five swimmers made the seven-hour trip south. 

They included Brice Bellamy, Ethan Gold, Lane Stahl, Sofiia Sadykova and Quinn McCue. 

Competing in disciplines which included the backstroke, butterfly, freestyle and individual medley, all five had varied degrees of success over the three-day competition at the Kinsmen Sports Centre.

Sadykova had the fastest time in her heat on Thursday in the 50-metre breaststroke with a time of 1:15.49. 

She was matched in her placing by Stahl, who placed at the top of his heat in the 50-metre butterfly and McCue, who had a time of 35.63 in the same event.

Meanwhile, Gold finished second in his heat in the 100-metre backstroke in a time of 1:17.05.

On Friday, Bellamy finished third in her heat in the 100-metre freestyle in a time of 1:07:11. Meanwhile, Gold finished fifth in his heat in the boys’ 100-metre freestyle with a time of 1:11:20. 

McQue, Stahl and Sadykova finished in the middle of the pack in their respective Friday events, the 200-metre backstroke, the 100-metre butterfly and 200-metre breaststroke.

McCue also had a solid time in the 200-metre individual medley on Saturday.

Titov said the results show the competitors are displaying continuous improvement, and the quintet of swimmers at the event have a future which could be “definitely promising” in the eyes of their coach.

“I’m all about technical focus and all about developing proper race-related skills, rather than just empty miles and miles on bad technique,” said Titov. “So this obviously takes time.”

The JP Fiset Invitational swim meet was hosted by Edmonton’s Olympian Swim Club and took place between Thursday, December 11th and Sunday, December 14th. 

See full results on the event’s website.