ISL Match 5, Day 1: Balanced Effort and Relay Sweep Leads Toronto Titans to Big Lead
The International Swimming League (ISL) season three continued with Match 5 from Naples, Italy, and during the first day of the match, the Toronto Titans opened up a lead ahead of the DC Trident, the LA Current and Team Iron. The Titans have been one of the most surprising teams early on this ISL season, and that group was the dominant team Thursday evening. Louise Hansson, Lisa Bratton, Kasia Wasick, Shane Ryan and impressive 15-year-old Summer McIntosh all picked up individual victories, and Toronto earned victories in both 400 freestyle relays and 400 medley relays. The Titans hold a big lead in the meet as they continue to send a message that by the end of the season, they may belong among the ISL’s elite.
Meanwhile, the Trident are in second place after wins from Jacob Pebley, Maria Temnikova, Ryan Hoffer, Bailey Andison, Andreas Vazaios, Felipe Franca Silva and Ali DeLoof, while the LA Current have been sluggish in Match #5 after excelling in Match #4 and even holding a lead over defending ISL champion Cali Condors for much of day one. However, largely thanks to the efforts of Tom Shields and Abbey Weitzeil, LA has closed the gap on DC and sits only 1.5 points behind. We will see if the Current can turn things around on day two.
Team Scores:
- Toronto Titans 284.5
- DC Trident 234
- LA Current 232.5
- Iron 161
Links
- LiveStream (Subscription only)
- Results (from Omega Timing)
- Match 1: Energy Standard Wins, Summer McIntosh Moves Toronto to Second
- Match 2: ISL Match 2: Coleman Stewart’s World Record Leads Cali Condors Domination
- Match 3: Sarah Sjostrom, Siobhan Haughey Lead Energy Romp
- Match 4, Day 1: Cali Condors Re-Take Lead Over LA Current in Medley Relays; Kelsi Dahlia Lowers ISL Record
- Match 4, Day 2: Caeleb Dressel Wins Four Events, Kelsi Dahlia Takes Two as Cali Condors Pull Away
Women’s 100 Butterfly
Toronto’s Louise Hansson cruised to a more-than-a-second victory in the 100 butterfly to start off the match. She touched the wall in 55.26. The time was close to the league record time of 55.22 set by Kelsi Dahlia earlier this season.
The jackpot time took the points of three competitors and gave Hansson 15 points.
DC Trident’s Linnea Mack took second in 56.48, followed by LA Current’s Anna Ntountounaki (57.13).
Men’s 100 Butterfly
LA Current’s Tom Shields earned 15 points in the men’s 100 fly to start the men’s races in Meet 5. He touched the wall in 48.78 and took the jackpot points from three competitors.
Toronto’s Marius Kusch took second in 49.97, f0llowed by LA’s Tomoe Hvas (50.08), who scored six points to give the Current 21 in the event as DC’s Zach Harting finished fourth (50.54).
Women’s 200 Backstroke
The Toronto Titans scored 17 points with a 1-2 finish in the 200 backstroke. Lisa Bratton won the race in 2:01.66, finishing ahead of teammate Kylie Masse (2:01.97).
The LA Current took the next two spots with Ingrid Wilm (2:02.82) and Kathleen Baker (2:04.25).
Men’s 200 Backstroke
DC Trident’s Jacob Pebley put together a huge race to earn some jackpot points in the 200 backstroke. Pebley touched the wall in 1:50.39 to earn 15 points and steal the points of the bottom three swimmers in the race.
Toronto’s Cole Pratt took second in 1:52.25, ahead of LA’s Maxime Rooney (1:52.63) and Team Iron’s Robert Glinta (1:52.73).
Women’s 200 Breaststroke
The DC Trident made it two wins in a row as Maria Temnikova earned a victory in the 200 breaststroke. She touched the wall in 2:18.98.
LA Current’s Anastasia Gorbenko took second in 2:19.22. Team Iron’s Jenna Strauch was third in 2:20.75, followed by Toronto’s Kelsey Wog (2:21.01).
Men’s 200 Breaststroke
Team Iron earned its first victory of the ISL meet as Erik Persson won the 200 breaststroke in 2:04.24, a three-tenths victory over DC Trident’s Cody Miller (2:04.54).
DC scored big points by going 2-3 with Miller and Tommy Cope (2:04.56) as he held off Toronto’s Anton McKee (2:04.83).
Women’s 400 Free Relay
The Toronto Titans earned the victory in the first relay of the meet as Kayla Sanchez, Michelle Coleman, Louise Hansson and Kasia Wasick touched the wall in 3:28.01 in the 400 free relay.
LA Current was second with Beryl Gastaldello, Madison Wilson, Valentine Dumont and Abbey Weitzeil finishing in 3:28.82.
Men’s 50 Free
DC Trident rookie Ryan Hoffer earned his first win of the meet with a 21.25 performance in the 50 free, enough to hold off Toronto Titans’ Shane Ryan (21.37) and Team Iron’s Thom de Boer (21.38).
Hoffer has been a huge addition to the Trident, giving the team an ISL sprinting threat in several events.
Women’s 50 Free
Toronto’s Kasia Wasick touched out Current’s Abbey Weitzeil to win the women’s 50 freestyle. Wasick touched in 23.78, just ahead of Weitzeil (23.87).
Toronto scored 16 points in the event as Michelle Coleman finished third (24.00) to finish ahead of Team Iron’s Ranomi Kromowidjojo (24.02).
Men’s 200 IM
DC Trident’s Andreas Vazaios earned a close victory in the 200 IM, touching the wall in 1:52.30, less than two seconds off the ISL record.
LA Current’s Tomoe Hvas took second in 1:52.42 to finish ahead of Toronto’s Finlay Knox (1:52.55) and Team Iron’s Leonardo Santos (1:53.35).
Women’s 200 IM
DC Trident earned a sweep of the 200 IM events. After Vazaios won the men’s event, Bailey Andison followed suit and won the women’s 200 IM. She touched the wall in 2:05.38 to finish a half second ahead of the field.
LA Current’s Anastasia Gorbenko took second in 2:05.81, followed by Toronto’s Kayla Sanchez (2:08.13) and Team Iron’s Maria Ugolkova (2:08.25).
Men’s 50 Breaststroke
DC Trident made it three wins in a row as Felipe Franca Silva won the 50 breaststroke in 26.07. He held off Team Iron’s Emre Sakci by a hundredth of a second (26.08).
Toronto’s Fabian Schwingenschlogl took third in 26.57, a tenth area of LA’s Christopher Rothbauer (26.67).
Women’s 50 Breaststroke
The LA Current snapped the DC Trident winning streak at three as LA’s Imogen Clark won the women’s 50 breaststroke in 29.86.
Team Iron’s Ida Hulkko took second in 29.95 to finish two hundredths area of DC Trident’s Tatiana Belonogoff (29.97).
Men’s 400 Free Relay
Toronto won the men’s 400 free relay in 2:06.60, led by Blake Pieroni, Marius Kusch, Brent Hayden and Yuri Yisil.
They held off the LA Current as Breno Correia, Fernandon Scheffer, Martin Malyutin and Vladislav Bukhov touched in 3:07.36.
Women’s 50 Backstroke
DC Trident’s Ali DeLoof was the lone swimmer under 36 seconds in the women’s 50 backstroke. She touched the wall in 25.98, under four tenths off the ISL record of 25.60 set by Kira Toussaint.
Toronto’s Kylie Masse took second in 26.16, ahead of LA Current’s Ingrid Wilm (26.51) and DC’s Linnea Mack (26.58).
Men’s 50 Backstroke
Toronto’s Shane Ryan held off DC Trident’s Andreas Vazaios to win the 50 backstroke.
Ryan touched in 23.12 ahead of Vazaios (23.39) and LA Current’s Apostolos Christou (23.41).
Women’s 400 Freestyle
The Toronto Titans continued their momentum as 15-year-old Summer McIntosh earned her first individual victory of the meet. Iron’s Barbora Seemanova claimed the checkpoint points at the 100-meter split after going out hard, but the young Canadian McIntosh took over after that and built a significant lead on her way to a final time of 3:58.78, the fastest time so far this ISL season by more than two seconds.
Toronto actually went 1-2 here as Julia Hassler placed second in 4:01.09, and DC Trident went 3-4 with Leah Neale (4:01.28) and Joanna Evans (4:02.12). Hassler and Neale also surpassed all previous ISL winning times from this season.
Men’s 400 Freestyle
LA Current’s Martin Malyutin used a late comeback to surge ahead and take first in the men’s 400 free. The win was Malyutin’s second straight in the event after winning Match #4 last weekend. LA Current’s Fernando Scheffer had the lead at the 100 to earn maximum checkpoint points, but then it was Iron’s Luis Altamir Melo who led for the middle portion of the race before Malyutin forced his way in front on the last 100 meters.
Malyutin won in 3:40.22, the top time this year in the ISL, while Toronto picked up second-place points with Luc Kroon finishing hard to post a time of 3:41.41. Melo ended up third in 3:42.21.
Women’s 400 Medley Relay
Toronto continued its unbeaten streak in the relays on day one as the group of Kylie Masse (56.33), Dominika Sztandera (1:05.55), Louise Hansson (54.73) and Kayla Sanchez (51.81) recording a 3:48.42. Hansson split 54.8 on the butterfly, almost a half-second ahead of her individual 100 fly winning time from earlier in the day, to put her team into the lead, and Sanchez held tough to hold off Abbey Weitzeil of the LA Current down the stretch.
Weitzeil split 51.50 as the Current (with Ingrid Wilm, Anastasia Gorbenko, Anna Ntountounaki and Weitzeil) took second in 3:49.14, and DC Trident’s Ali DeLoof, Tatiana Belonogoff, Maddie Groves and Anna Hopkin took third in 3:49.78. DeLoof led off in 55.99, the quickest backstroke split, and Hopkin anchored in 51.84.
Men’s 400 Medley Relay
Toronto capped off the day with another relay win to finish four-for-four in those events and secure a 50.5-point advantage heading into day two. Here, the group of Shane Ryan (50.74), Fabien Schwingenschlogl (56.62), Marius Kusch (49.92) and Blake Pieroni (46.39) led wire-to-wire and held off LA Current by a half-second.
They nailed down the win in 3:23.67, while the Current’s group of Apostolos Christou, Christopher Rothbauer, Tom Shields and Maxime Rooney placed second in 3:24.22. Shields split a ridiculous 48.53, the top split in the race by almost a second, to move the Current up from fourth to second, and Rooney finished in 46.45 to put a scare into Pieroni and Toronto. DC Trident’s Jacob Pebley, Felipe Franca Silva, Zach Harting and Zach Apple placed third in 3:24.73, with Apple anchoring in 46.39.
Notably, LA’s two relays finished second and fifth, while Toronto was first and eighth (and that eighth-place squad was jackpotted by the winning group), and that left LA with a points advantage of 22-to-20 in this event. That means the Current, not the Titans, will have the final say on the stroke for men’s skins.
