ISL Match 10 Notes: Lilly King Regains Throne; London Roar Plays Housecat

Cali Condor's Lilly King; Photo Courtesy: Mike Lewis/ISL

The beauty of the International Swimming League, beyond the laser-light show and computer-animated team logos, lies in what it can provide in competition. Sometimes, that’s fast times. Others, it’s just about getting a hand on the wall first.

In ISL Match 10, the distinction broke cleanly between the days, a best-of-both-worlds situation.

Monday’s Day 1 of the match between Aqua Centurions, London Roar, Cali Condors and LA Current was all about racing. The abundance of races decided by miniscule margins defined Day 1:

Women’s 100 fly: Beryl Gastaldello beats Kelsi Dahlia by .01
Men’s 100 fly: Caeleb Dressel beats Tom Shields by .15
Men’s 200 back: Ryan Murphy beats Radoslaw Kawecki by .19
Women’s 200 breast: Annie Lazor beats Lilly King by .14
Men’s 200 breast: Will Licon beats Kirill Prigoda by .09
Women’s 400 free relay: London Roar beats Cali Condors by .04
Men’s 200 IM: Vini Lanza beats Philip Heintz by .03, Andreas Vazaios by .09
Men’s 200 IM: Beata Nelson beats Sydney Pickrem by .02, Anastasia Gorbenko by .03
Women’s 50 breast: Molly Hannis beats Lilly King by .01

Day 2 had its share of close races – Gastaldello over Weitzeil by .10 in the 100 free and over Alyssa Marsh by .01 in the 50 fly among them. But Tuesday was jackpot day. The first day of ISL Match 10 featured just two jackpots of 19 points of more. Day 2 brought six jackpots of 19 or more points, led by Dressel scoring 24 points in the men’s 100 IM. Two belonged to Gastaldello, in the 100 fly and 100 IM, proving a close race at the top can also mean big points stolen from the bottom.

The dichotomy demonstrates the challenge of constructing an ISL team. You need depth of racers at the top. You need some of those elite talents who can pick up big points via the jackpot. But you also need the bottom of your lineup to be solid enough to keep within the jackpot time and prevent hemorrhaging points.

RESULTS

London playing possum

According to the regular-season standings, three of the top four teams were in the water in ISL Match 10. Two of them swam like it.

London Roar’s Annie Lazor; Photo Courtesy: MIKE LEWIS

Cali ran away with the win with 558 points. LA Current was second, buoyed by Ryan Murphy’s skins wins, to collect 495.

London Roar were way back in third at 399 … as was, apparently, the plan.

“For today’s match, it wasn’t our goal to win,” IMer Andreas Vazaios said during a virtual mixed zone via Zoom. “But it was to try to learn from this individually and as a team as well. We keep getting better and we keep getting more close to each other, we cheer hard and we’re going to be ready for the finals, because that’s the goal.”

The Roar were two days removed from their last match, a second-place finish in a duel with the Condors. Beating them in ISL Match 10 would mean far less than beating them in the semifinals or finals in the weeks to come.

So Adam Peaty was rested, as was Siobhan-Marie O’Connor. Alia Atkinson didn’t swim the breaststroke skins. Kira Toussaint and Marie Wattel weren’t stretched, with two individual events each. Accordingly, the Roar only placed two scorers within the top 17, Freya Anderson in ninth and Sydney Pickrem in 13th.

Instead, the Roar tried different lineup combinations, hoping for options down the road.

“That was our strategy,” Vazaios said. “We talked with the coaches a lot and since we secured our spot to the semifinals, we tried a lot of different lineups, different events and different strategies as we go for the semifinals and the finals as well. A lot of people stepped up, they did what they had to do and they kept trying harder and harder to score points.”

One positive is their renewed strength in the 400 IM: Pickrem won the women’s race by a wide margin with Aimee Wilmott third, then Duncan Scott eked out a win. It’s a good card to have in the back pocket as the semifinals wind down.

“Our goal is to be perfect in the semifinals and even better in the final, keep learning our strategies and techniques, both individually but also as a team together,” Vazaios said. “We’re happy and we keep getting better and we build as we go through the last two matches.”

If you come at the Queen …

Not that she’s usually subdued when it comes to competition, but Lilly King swam like a woman possessed Tuesday. It seemed that if not making her mad (since she’s an eminently calculated if ferocious competitor), the pair of losses doled out on the first day of ISL Match 10 lit a fire under the breaststroke star, who had been 30-for-30 in her ISL career.

In context, the losses were coinflips – by .14 to Lazor and .01 to Molly Hannis, neither of them slouches. King is one of the best at getting her hand to the wall first in tight races, but at some point, luck in those toss-ups was bound to flip. That point was apparently 30 races.

Tuesday, she left nothing to chance. In the 100 breast, she was out in 29.59, the only swimmer under 30. She came back in 33.56, the second-fastest in the race. The sum was a 1:03.15, her fastest time of the season and .15 off her ISL record. She left no drama, beating Atkinson by 1.28 seconds.

King made a similar mockery of the skins, the obvious choice for the Condors. She and Hannis were again 1-2 at every stage, King decisively on top. She started with a 29.16 to reap 15 points via the jackpot in Round 1, then went 29.63 and 29.24 to allow Hannis no window to enter the picture. (Hannis, to her credit, was 29.77, 29.99, 29.85).

A salute to Aqua

Aqua Centurions’ Federica Pellegrini; Photo Courtesy: Mine Kasapoglu/ISL

Aqua Centurions’ participation in the 2020 ISL season has ended, the Italian-based team finishing fourth in each match and failing to qualify for the semifinals. As Rowdy Gaines alluded on the broadcast, Aqua had one of the stronger men’s teams, led by a daunting sprint contingent that won three freestyle relays.

“I would say we are still pretty happy with our results, especially the men did an amazing job, but also the women did pretty well,” AC’s Philip Heintz said. “Everybody did everything they can, especially the breaststrokers were really, really good, and we are looking forward to next year. You can learn by defeats.”

Aqua’s absence will factor into the individual battles that take place in the semifinals. The absence of Szebasztian Szabo, four-time champ in the men’s 50 fly, opens wide the gates. Mykhaylo Romanchuk (400 free), Alessandro Miressi (100 free) and Heintz (200 IM) won twice each.

The women’s side, which has been the weak spot, got Federica Pellegrini back for the last match, though she was far from full strength. Aqua Centurions won just two women’s races all season – Valentine Dumont in the 400 free in Match 2, Martina Carrero in the 50 breast in Match 3. But they ended on a high note by pushing Carraro and Arianna Castiglioni into the semis of the breaststroke skins.

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