Relay Analysis: Depth Carries Cali To Three Wins On Day 1 of Match 4

2020 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – MATCH 4

• Monday, October 26: 3 PM-5 PM Local Time (10 AM-12 noon U.S. Eastern, 11 PM-1 AM J+1 Japan)
• Tuesday, October 27: 3 PM-5 PM Local Time (10 AM-12 noon U.S. Eastern, 11 PM-1 AM J+1 Japan)
• Duna Arena – Budapest, Hungary
• Short Course Meters (SCM) format
• ISL Technical Handbook
• 2020 ISL Scoring Format
• 2020 ISL Prize Money and Bonuses
• How To Watch
• Teams: Cali Condors / DC Trident / Iron / NY Breakers

The Cali Condors won three of the four relays contested on the opening day of the International Swimming League’s fourth match in Budapest, helping the club land a decisive 111.5 point lead at the halfway mark.

The key for the Condors was depth, particularly in the free relays, where all of their swimmers had splits close to the top of the rankings (rather than relying on one crazy-fast swim).

Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay

Relay Lead-offs

Ranomi Kromowidjojo gave Iron the early lead in the race, but Olivia Smoliga had a strong swim, just over two-tenths off her lifetime best (52.32), to set Cali up for what was to come.

Flying Splits

Allison Schmitt continues her string of impressive swims this season with the fastest leg here, going third for the Condors. Schmitt’s swim extended the lead Erika Brown (52.84) had handed off to her, and then Natalie Hinds (52.57) gave the club four 52-second swims for the decisive win by over two seconds.

Margo Geer and Abbie Wood also had notably fast splits in the race, helping the Trident and Breakers take second and third, respectively.

Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay

Relay Lead-offs

While it wasn’t quite a 45 like we saw him do multiple times in his first appearance of the season, Zach Apple still had a strong lead-off for the DC Tridents nonetheless, handing the club the early lead. After what Jacob Pebley managed to do swimming second (46.46), the duo led the team to a solid third-place showing.

Kacper Majchrzak, who was 46.90 with a takeover on this relay in the first match, stepped up for the Condors going 46.80 on the lead-off.

Flying Splits

Similar to the women’s team, Cali’s men reeled off three 46-mid splits to earn a relatively comfortable win in 3:06.11, led by Caeleb Dressel in 46.35.

As previously mentioned, Pebley’s split was a standout for DC, almost a full seven-tenths faster than he was on this relay in the first match, and Thom de Boer, Marco Orsi, Pieter Timmers and Emre Sakci all hit 46s for the second match in a row.

Women’s 400 Medley Relay

Backstroke Lead-offs

Breaststroke Splits

Butterfly Splits

Freestyle Splits

Cali’s excellence was fully on display in the women’s medley relay, as the club produced the fastest split on three strokes and the second-fastest on the other. Olivia Smoliga and Beata Nelson put them 1-2 right off the bat, and then Lilly King, Kelsi Dahlia and Hinds finished things off for the ‘A’ team.

Molly Hannis, Brown and Schmitt joined Nelson to get the job done and claim second, giving the Condors a whopping 32 points for the event.

The women’s breaststroke in particular was extremely elite in this race, with six swimmers splitting sub-1:05. Bethany Galat, who didn’t race either this relay or the individual 100 breast during DC’s first match, was second to King in a blazing 1:04.26, helping to propel the Trident past the NY Breakers for third in the race. Lindsey Kozelsky was also 1:04.55 for DC’s ‘B’ team after splitting 1:05.75 in the first match.

Kromowidjojo had a strong 56.99 fly leg for Iron coming off a 58.22 individual swim earlier in the session, and we can’t overlook Kasia Wasick‘s incredible 51.59 anchor for the Breakers. Wasick certainly has the hot hand right now after winning the 50 free in 23.43.

On the other end of the spectrum, Linnea Mack was only 59.15 leading off for DC’s ‘B’ team, well off her 57.62 from last match.

Men’s 400 Medley Relay

Backstroke Lead-offs

Breaststroke Splits

Butterfly Splits

Freestyle Splits

The lone non-Cali relay win of the day went to the Iron men, who had three solid legs coupled with a tantalizing breaststroke split from Emre Sakci that earned them the victory.

Sakci and New York Breaker Marco Koch wowed everyone with what they did individually during the session in the 50 and 200 breast, respectively, and both followed with 56s here in the medley (with no one else in the field sub-58). Sakci’s 56.15 was well under what he did in the first match (56.83), and is the third-fastest 100 breast relay swim we’ve seen this season (trailing Ilya Shymanovich‘s 56.06 and Nicolo Martinenghi‘s 56.09).

Koch’s 56.78 moved the Breakers up from eighth to second, and put them in the running to take the runner-up spot at the end, though they were edged out and ended up fourth.

Caeleb Dressel had a solid 58.11 breast split swimming his third-best stroke, while Marcin Cieslak was the lone man sub-50 on fly for Cali’s ‘B’ team. Had he been swapped with Coleman Stewart, who was 50.85 on the ‘A’ squad, the Condors would’ve moved up one spot at the finish.

The backstrokers were relatively even, led by Pebley who knocked almost six-tenths off his showing from the last match in 50.80.

Apple was the star amongst the freestylers once again, carrying DC from fifth to second with a scintillating 45.46. Majchrzak had another standout split for Cali in 46.06, getting them by the Breakers for third.