Relay DQ Costs 20, But Energy Standard Loses 28 Points To Cali On Day 1

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
• Session 1 results

The first European stop of the newly-formed International Swimming League began on Saturday in Naples, Italy at the Piscina Felipe Scandone. League organizers are not releasing official attendances, but whereas last meets “sell out” in Indianapolis was maybe 6oo or 700 spectators in a 4,500 seat natatorium, this week in Naples there weren’t many empty seats in their similarly-sized facility.

When Energy Standard won the Indianapolis ISL event, they led the Cali Condors by 20.5 on day 1. In Naples, they trail by 7.5. What made the difference?

Relay DQ: 20-point swing

Energy Standard disqualified its second-place men’s medley relay. That’s a massive swing, ultimately 20 points between Cali and Energy Standard. Here’s a quick look at the math:

Energy Standard (-16):

• Energy Standard would have scored 14 points for the runner-up relay. They lose those points. (-14)
• They also incur a disqualification penalty: four points in a relay (-4)
• However, their B relay moves up one spot, a boost of two (+2)

Cali Condors (+4):

• Both of Cali’s relays move up a spot – that’s worth two points for each relay (+4)

The DQ was on a false start from anchor Ivan Girev, who had a -0.04 reaction time. Had Energy Standard not DQ’d, they’d be leading by 12.5, rather than trailing by 7.5.

Other Energy Standard/Cali Swings

A few key races flipped this week, leading to Cali’s current point lead:

• In the very first event, Kelsi Dahlia beat Sarah Sjostrom in the 100 fly. That’s a reversal of last week, when Energy Standard’s Sjostrom beat Cali’s Dahlia for the top spot.
• Caeleb Dressel came up with a few big additions. He wasn’t competing last week in Indy, and scored 16 points individually on a second-place 100 fly and a win in the 50 free. That’s not even counting his contributions to both men’s relays: the medley moved up from 5th to 3rd, and the free relay from 5th to second.
• In the 50 back, the Cali women went 1-2 with Olivia Smoliga and Kyle Masse – that’s a move up from a 1-4 finish in Indy.

Aqua Centurions on the Rise

Home pool advantage is proving a big factor, as the Aqua Centurions are swimming way better than they did last week. A few key factors for them:

• Federica Pellegrini finally swam an individual event. After swimming only relays in Indy, Pellegrini returned to the 200 free, an event she’s dominated internationally, but has also started to shift away from in the later stages of her career. Pellegrini gutted out a 4th place finish there, a huge improvement for a team that took 7th and 8th out of 8 swimmers last week in Indy.
• The Aqua Centurions also ironed out their relay lineups and were able to win the men’s medley. In Indy, they went 3-5, but their best splits were broken up between the two relays – in fact, their best breast, fly and free splits were on the B team that had a disastrous backstroke leadoff leg and had to play catchup. This time around, the team of Simone Sabbioni, Nicolo Martinenghi, Matteo Rivolta and Alessandro Miressi picked up the win, and the B relay remained 5th. That was a gain of 6 points from last week.
• The Aqua Centurions have great men’s breaststrokers, but their impact was limited last week because they were only really good in the 50 and 100. This week, both cut multiple seconds in the 200 and the points haul went way up. Martinenghi was a second and a half faster and Fabio Scozzoli about three seconds faster.