ISL Day One Recap: King, Smoliga, Margalis Break American Records as Condors Lead

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

ISL Day One Recap: King, Smoliga, Margalis Break American Records as Condors Lead

Live swimming is here! The International Swimming League kicked off its six-week long season Friday morning with defending champs Energy Standard facing off against three American teams in the LA Current, Cali Condors and New York Breakers. Three of the four teams today made the final in Vegas last year so it was expected to be a fun matchup.

The Cali Condors trio of Lilly King, Melanie Margalis and Olivia Smoliga kicked off the season with two American records in the 50 breaststroke, 200 IM and 50 backstroke, breaking their own records in the process.

On the men’s side, Ryan Murphy helped the LA Current win two events, as they swept the men’s relays with Murphy winning the 50 back.

Last season’s MVP, Sarah Sjostrom of Energy Standard, won two events in the 100 fly and 50 free.

TEAM SCORES

Cali Condors – 280
Energy Standard – 235
LA Current – 214
New York Breakers – 154

Where to watch:

CBS Sports Network
CBC
Claro Sports
TV Globo
ESPN (Central America)
BeIn Sports
TV Asahi
Eurosport India
Sky, Gazetta Dello Sporte
BBC
Eurosport
Match TV
Belarus TV and Radio Company
M4
Sport 1
Sportklub
Seven

*Jackpot times are determined in advance: for instance, 1.35secs in the men’s 100 free. If the winner touches in 45secs, all those who are slower than 46.35 forfeit their points to the man who stopped the clock first.

Women’s 100 Butterfly

Reigning season MVP Sarah Sjostrom (56.00) of Energy Standard led a 1-2 finish with teammate Anastasiya Shkurdai, a rising star out of Belarus. American Kelsi Dahlia closed well on the last 25 ahead of teammate Erika Brown to finish third while rookie Brown was fourth.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Men’s 100 Butterfly

LA Current got off to a great start in the men’s race as Tom Shields stole the race from lane 1 at 49.58, just holding off Caeleb Dressel of the Cali Condors. Current rookie Maxime Rooney finished in third ahead of Energy Standard’s Chad Le Clos. Shields achieved the jackpot time with his win.

Screen Shot 2020-10-16 at 10.57.11 AM

Women’s 200 Backstroke

Emily Seebohm of Energy Standard held off a furious rally from Condors rookie Beata Nelson, who pushed her underwaters on the last 50, as the Aussie won the 200 back with a 2:02.70 as she hit the jackpot time, meaning she met the determined margin over the last place swimmer. Hali Flickinger of the Condors finished in third.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Men’s 200 Backstroke

Radoslaw Kawecki of the Cali Condors took the men’s 200 backstroke win with his superb underwaters as the Polish Worlds medalist beat Ryan Murphy (Current) and two-time reigning World champ Evgeny Rylov (Energy). Kawecki swam a 1:48 with his win.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Women’s 200 Breaststroke

Lilly King of the Cali Condors held off a late charge from Emily Escobedo of the New York Breakers as King won with a 2:17.11, not far off her best time. She achieved the jackpot time as Molly Renshaw of the Breakers finished in third.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Men’s 200 Breaststroke

The New York Breakers got their first win of the day with Marco Koch touching at 2:02.12 ahead of LA Current’s Will Licon and Energy’s Ilya Shymanovich. He achieved the jackpot time, stealing points from fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Women’s 4×100 Free Relay

Energy Standard took the first relay of the season at 3:28.51 with Siobhan Haughey, Pernille Blume, Maddy Banic and Sarah Sjostrom taking the win. LA Current had a lead through three legs but Katie McLaughlin could not hold off Energy as they gave a good fight led by Abbey Weitzeil, Beryl Gastaldello and Farida Osman as they finished in second ahead of the Condors.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Men’s 50 Free

Florent Manaudou (Energy Standard) took down world record holder Caeleb Dressel (Condors) with a 20.63 as Justin Ress finished in third for the Condors. Manaudou achieved the jackpot time, taking away points from seventh and eighth place.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Women’s 50 Free

Sarah Sjostrom of Energy Standard took her second win with a 23.48 ahead of LA Current’s Beryl Gastaldello and Cali’s Olivia Smoliga. She took away points from eighth place, achieving the jackpot time.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Men’s 200 IM

LA Current went 1-2 with Andrew Seliskar and Tomoe Hvas as Seliskar won with a 1:52.97. New York Breakers finished third and fourth with Joe Litchfield and Lewis Clareburt.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Women’s 200 IM

Melanie Margalis of the Cali Condors took the win with an impressive back half over a strong performance from Abbie Wood of the New York Breakers and Anastasia Gorbenko of the LA Current.

Margalis also broke her own American record with a 2:04.06 as she lowered her own record she set last year of 2:04.18 from the first meet in 2019.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Men’s 50 Breast

Ilya Shymanovich of Energy Standard showed the speed with a 25.64, winning ahead of the Brazilian duo of Felipe Lima (Energy) and Felipe Franca (Current). Michael Andrew of the Breakers finished in fourth.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Women’s 50 Breast

Lilly King remained undefeated in ISL competition, just holding off Benedetta Pilato (Energy) and Molly Hannis (Condors). King won with a 28.86, which is a new American record, breaking her own of 28.90 from the ISL final in Vegas last year.

*King’s time is technically the second fastest time in US history behind Jessica Hardy (28.80) from November 2009. USA Swimming decided that American records set in shiny suits after Oct. 1, 2009 – when USA Swimming implemented the shiny suit ban domestically – would not be ratified. This is the case even for times swum legally in international events where ban was not in effect yet.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Men’s 4×100 Freestyle

The LA Current take the win in the first men’s relay of the season with Marco Ferreira, Tom Shields, Kristian Gkolomeev and Maxime Rooney.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Women’s 50 Backstroke

Olivia Smoliga (Condors) just missed the world record with a 25.74, as she broke her own American record of 25.85 that she set two years ago at short course Worlds. Smoliga won ahead of Beryl Gastaldello and Energy’s Emily Seebohm.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Men’s 50 Backstroke

Ryan Murphy from lane 1 won the 50 back at 22.99 ahead of the NC State duo from the Condors Justin Ress and Coleman Stewart.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Women’s 400 Freestyle

Melanie Margalis of the Condors picked up another win for the Birds as she closed well on the last 100 with a 3:58.43, running down Energy’s Siobhan Haughey. Condors finished in third as well with. Hali Flickinger finished in third ahead of Boglarka Kapas of the New York Breakers.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Men’s 400 Freestyle

Danas Rapsys made his ISL debut for Energy Standard with a dominating win in the 400 freestyle with a 3:39.36, finishing ahead of the New York Breakers duo of Brendon Smith and Felix Aubock.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Women’s 4×100 Medley Relay

The Cali Condors picked up huge points in the medley relay with a 3:47.92 for the winning quartet of Olivia Smoliga, Lilly King, Kelsi Dahlia and Erika Brown, just holding off Energy Standard’s team, with Anastasiya Shkurdai and Sarah Sjostrom closing well.

The winning team will get to pick the stroke of the Skins event tomorrow and head coach Jonty Skinner said he would likely pick breaststroke.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay

The LA Current won the men’s medley relay with Ryan Murphy, Will Licon, Tom Shields and Maxime Rooney as they ran down Energy Standard to close out day one.

Head coach David Marsh said it would be a toss-up between backstroke and butterfly for the Skins event tomorrow, but would need to re-evaluate overnight.

Photo Courtesy: ISL

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

Name*

Email*

1 Comment

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Beth Esposito Bodine

3 years ago

Her last name is King, but Lily King is the QUEEN of breaststroke! ??