ISL Naples: What Worked Well For Each Team On Day Two

2019 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE: GROUP A, MATCH 2 – NAPLES

• Saturday, October 12th – Sunday, October 13th
• 7:00 pm – 9:00 PM, local time (UTC+2), (1:00 pm – 3:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time)
• Naples, Italy
• Piscina Felice Scandalone, Via Giochi del Mediterraneo
• Short Course Meters (SCM)
• Group A: Cali Condors, DC Trident, Energy Standard, Aqua Centurions
• Live stream, event schedule & viewer’s guide
• Day 1 complete results
• Day 2 complete results

The Energy Standard team, led by James Gibson, have successfully swept both matches in ISL Group A: the first by a runaway in Indianapolis, and the second this weekend in Naples in a nail-biting competition.

Heading into day 2, the Condors had a huge point-gap over the Energy Standard. However, it was Sarah Sjostrom and Femke Heemskerk‘s repeat 1-2 finish in the 50 free skins that gave Energy the 48 points to put them half a point ahead of the Condors. Despite Caeleb Dressel‘s 27-point snag for the men’s skins race, Florent Manaudou‘s 21 points and Ben Proud‘s 3rd-place finish gave Energy Standard their 2.5-point lead over the Condors to win their second-straight match.

In the race for third place, the home advantage team Aqua Centurions heavily leaded the DC Trident until Siobhan Haughey snuck into the top 4 skins finishers to earn double points for her team. In the team race, DC Trident clipped the Aqua Centurions by half a point for the third-place team.

The Energy squad also remains on top of the season points rankings with a 2-point advantage over the Cali Condors.

FINAL TEAM SCORES – Naples

1. Energy Standard – 493
2. Cali Condors – 490.5
3. DC Trident – 322
4. Aqua Centurions – 321.5

Team Season Points After Naples

1. Energy Standard – 8
2. Cali Condors – 6
3. DC Trident – 4
4. Aqua Centurions – 2

Into the MVP for the Naples match, it was Caeleb Dressel of the Cali Condors that topped the rankings with 57.5 points, just 4.5 points ahead of Indy MVP Sarah Sjostrom. Dressel also leads the prize money rankings with 45 points, also 2 points ahead of Swedish counter-part Sjostrom.

Final MVP Rankings – Naples

1. Caeleb Dressel – Cali Condors – 57.5 points
2. Sarah Sjostrom – Energy Standard – 52 points
3. Chad le Clos – Energy Standard – 44.5 points
4. Olivia Smoliga –  Cali Condors – 44 points
5. Bethany Galat – DC Trident – 33.5 points

Prize Money Standing – Naples

1. Caeleb Dressel – Cali Condors – 45 points
2. Sarah Sjostrom – Energy Standard – 43 points
3. Olivia Smoliga –  Cali Condors – 28 points
4. Chad le Clos – Energy Standard – 25 points
5. Lilly King – Cali Condors/Florent Manaudou – Energy Standard – 21 points

Looking at the MVP and prize money standings, it is evident who are the top swimmers in Group A and vital assets for their teams. Caeleb Dressel and Olivia Smoliga continue to represent their respective gender’s sprint events as well as Energy Standard counter-parts Sarah Sjostrom and Florent Manaudou. In the same way, Lilly King is dominant in the women’s breaststroke for the Condors while Chad le Clos never fails to put on a show for Energy Standard in the men’s fly events.

However, there were four swimmers from DC Trident who really showed true grit and powered the team to catch the hosting Aqua Centurions for the third place team.

• Siobhan Haughey – The Hong Kong native set things straight in the end for the Trident. She first snagged 6 points in the 100 free, followed by her anchor on the Trident’s medley relay to hold off Energy Standard for second place. After swimming another relay (mixed 4×100 free relay), Haughey finished second in the first round of skins in a national record (24.14) to advance into the double points round to earn 10 points for the Trident. Over the weekend, Haughey’s efforts set three new national records for Hong Kong.
• Bethany Galat – Galat proved herself an essential asset for the Trident as she showed her breaststroke strengths on day two. Galat finished third in the 100 breast, overshadowed by the Condors’ 1-2 finish. However, Galat split a 1:04.08 in the medley relay to allow the Trident a slight edge over Energy Standard. She followed up her breast swims with another 6-point snag in the 200 IM and 5-point swim in the 200 fly.
• Zane Grothe – Grothe was the first DC Trident victory of the day with his tight win in the 400 free, holding off Energy Standard’s Mykhaylo Romanchuk and Aqua Centurions’ Poul Zellmann by tenths of a second.
• Andreas Vazaios – The Greek swimmer swam a strong back half to tie with Condor Mitch Larkin for the win in the 200 IM. Vazaios then finished second in the 200 fly behind Energy’s Chad le Clos, contributing 15 points on day two for the Trident.

Likewise, Energy Standard’s catch-up was not just from the skins swims and sprint relays. Belarusian Ilya Shymanovich represented men’s breaststroke well with his first-place finish in the 100 breast, toppling Aqua Centurion studs Nicolo Martinenghi and Fabio Scozzoli. A secret underdog for Energy also was Canadian Kayla Sanchez, who picked up 14 points from her runner-up finishes in the 100 free and 200 IM.

Sanchez, along with Olympic champion Penny Oleksiak, were key swimmers in the winning mixed free relay and showed how deep Energy Standard truly is as Gibson chose to save Sjostrom/Heemskerk for the skins races.

With Group A’s double matches now complete, these four teams now have a lot of preparation heading into the November derbies The derbies will consist of a US-based derby and Europe-based derby to determined the top two teams that will advance to the Las Vegas final in December.

This coming weekend, the Group B teams (LA Current, NY Breakers, London Roar, Team Iron) will now have their taste of the ISL pool.