2021 ISL Match 11 Preview: DC, Iron, Tokyo, New York Have One Last Shot

2021 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – SEASON 3, MATCH 11

• Wednesday, September 29 – Thursday, September 30
• 7:00 am – 9:00 am EST (1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Local Time)
  • See schedule change
• Piscina Felice Scandone, Naples, Italy
• Short Course Meters (25m – SCM) Format
• ISL Season 3 Schedules, Start Times, & More
• Teams Competing: DC Trident, Team Iron, Tokyo Frog Kings, New York Breakers
• Omega Live Results

Match 11 represents the final time the ISL will compete in Naples in 2021. The DC Trident, Team Iron, the Tokyo Frog Kings, and New York Breakers are all fighting for their tickets to Eindhoven. Two will advance and two will end their seasons.

Looking at each team’s standings so far can give us a pretty good idea of what we might expect to see in Match 11. Iron is the highest-ranked of the four teams competing while the New York Breakers are the lowest-ranked. Most likely, Iron will advance and New York will not. That leaves one more ticket to the Netherlands for either the Tokyo Frog Kings or the DC Trident. At present, Tokyo is ranked higher than DC by 1 point, though DC has arguably had a more difficult schedule in season 3. It is also worth nothing that DC beat Iron in Match 5, while none of the other teams competing in Match 11 have beaten DC this season–that is, however, due to the fact that Match 11 is the first time DC is meeting Tokyo or New York in season 3 so neither has had the opportunity.

Season 3 Team Records

• Iron – 8 points
  • 1 x 2nd-place finish
  • 2 x 3rd-place finish
  • 1 x 4th-place finish
• Tokyo Frog Kings – 6 points
  • 2 x 3rd-place finish
  • 2 x 4th-place finish
• DC Trident – 5 points
  • 1 x 3rd-place finish
  • 3 x 4th-place finishes
• NY Breakers – 4 points
  • 4 x 4th-place finishes

Butterfly

Iron probably has the strongest butterfly group with Nicholas Santos, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Alys Thomas, Luiz Altamir Melo, Emilie Beckmann, and Thom de Boer representing their top butterflyers while Mikhail Vekovishchev and Maria Ugolkova provide support. Interestingly, Iron is extremely strong in the 50 butterfly and 200 butterfly but a little lacking in the 100 butterfly. Kromowidjojo won the Match 10 50 fly skins though, and Santos posted a 21.83 in the individual 50 fly in Match 10. Meanwhile, Thomas and Altamir Melo were each just out-touched in the 200 fly in Match 10.

The DC Trident has the second-strongest butterfly group with Zach Harting, Andreas Vazaios, Camden Murphy, Aleksandr Shchegolev, Velimir Stjepanovic, Ryan Hoffer, Mark Nikolaev, Linnea Mack, Klaudia Nazieblo, Szuszanna Jakabos, and Ting Wen Quah. That’s a lot of names, so can any of them actually win an event? Honestly, an individual event win in any butterfly race would be a surprise for the DC Trident, though Jakabos won the 200 fly in Match 9, albeit in a much slower time than it took to win Match 10.

Tokyo Frog Kings have heavy-hitter Daiya Seto as well as a solid support cast consisting of Leah Gringrich, Aly Tetzloff, Harriet Jones, and Takeshi Kawamoto. Tokyo can expect to get some solid points in the butterfly events though they could do with a little more depth. Seto and DC’s Harting ought to make for a good battle in the 200 fly, though Seto has looked a little sharper than Harting lately.

New York Breakers have a small but tough butterfly group with Svetlana Chimrova, Arina Surkova, Jakub Majerski, Matt Temple, and Joe Litchfield. If they carry the momentum they showed in Match 10, the Breakers could pick up significant points in the butterfly events in Match 11.

Edge: Iron (women & men)

Backstroke

The Tokyo Frog Kings bring in heavy-hitters Grigory Tarasevich and Richard Bohus, as well as Takeshi Kawamoto, Cassie Wild, Aly Tetzloff, and Paige Madden, all of whom are reliable to put points on the board.

Iron brings in Robert Glinta, Guilherme Basseto, Ingeborg Loyning, Africa Zamorano, Lorenzo Mora, and Silvia Scalia. Glinta, Basseto, and Loyning have been pretty good recently though their team is overall a bit thin in backstroke.

The DC Trident could make some noise in backstroke with Jacob Pebley, Mark Nikolaev, Andreas Vazaios, Ali DeLoof, Isabella Hindley, Linnea Mack, and Zsuzsanna Jakabos. DeLoof and Pebley in particular have been strong this season while Nikolaev and Mack have provided great support and are reliable for points.

The New York Breakers have three great female backstrokers in Paulina Peda, Alicja Tchorz, and Daryna Zevina, though they’re thinner on the men’s side with Oleg Braunscheig, Brandonn Almeida, and Joe Litchfield, though Litchfield has looked on-form lately.

Edge: Tokyo Frog Kings (men), DC Trident (women)

Breaststroke

The Tokyo Frog Kings have a great male breaststroke crew with Daiya Seto, Yasuhiro Koseki, and Alessandro Pinzuti and could put some serious points on the board in all 3 breaststroke events. Tokyo is a little thinner in women’s breaststroke, relying on Kanako Watanabe and Miranda Tucker, both of whom need to be on top of their game to give Tokyo a shot in women’s breaststroke in Match 11.

Erik Persson has been a vital component of Iron’s success in season 3, and Bernhard Reitshammer has also delivered some solid performances. Season 2 star Emre Sakci has not been on-form though. Even so, Iron has a strong male breaststroke crew. Iron’s best female breaststrokers, Ida Hulkko and Jenna Strauch, have been solid in season 3 but neither has really popped yet.

The DC Trident should do well in breaststroke with Cody Miller, Felipe Franca Silva, and Tommy Cope on the men’s side, as well as Maria Temnikova, Bailey Andison, and Tatiana Belonogoff on the women’s side. Based on what we’ve seen so far in season 3, DC probably has the strongest women’s breaststroke crew of the four teams competing in Match 11. As for their men, it’s a toss-up with Tokyo.

The New York Breakers have a strong women’s breaststroke crew with Molly Renshaw, Abbie Wood, and Tes Schouten. Wood has been especially good in season 3, though she is also needed in the IMs and could be spread a little thin. New York’s men, Marco Koch and Philip Heintz, have yet to hit their stride in season 3, though Koch is the ISL Record holder in the 200 breaststroke, so we can’t count him out.

Edge: Tokyo Frog Kings (men), DC Trident (women)

Freestyle

Iron might have the most robust women’s freestyle roster with Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Costanza Cocconcelli, Barbora Seemanova, Veronika Andusenko, Silvia Scalia, and Melanie Henique. Kromowidjojo and Seemanova have been very impressive lately while the others provide a solid support crew capable of scoring across all freestyle distances, 50 through 400, as well as the relay. Iron’s men are not quite as strong in freestyle but still very formidable with Thom de Boer, Marco Orsi, Matt Richards, Luiz Altamir Melo, Lorenzo Mora, and Mikhail Vekovishchev. De Boer has been on-form lately while Richards has been finding his form and has improved significantly since the beginning of the season.

The DC Trident also has a very strong freestyle crew with Anna Hopkin, Linnea Mack, Leah Neale, Annika Bruhn, and Madison Kennedy rounding out the women’s roster. Neale has been one of the best middle-distance freestylers in the league this season and is arguably the tentative favorite for the women’s 400 freestyle in Match 11. Zach Apple, Ryan Hoffer, Aleksander Shchegolev, Sergey Shevtsov, and Zane Grothe appear a very strong freestyle group on paper, though none of them have really found their footing yet in season 3. If they’re on their game they should be good for a lot of points; if they swim like they have all season it will be a much rougher go.

Aly Tetzloff and Paige Madden have been huge assets for the Tokyo Frog Kings this season, while Gabby DeLoof, Catie DeLoof, Julie Meynen, Mallory Comerford, and Chihiro Igarashi are strong support crew and combine for solid relays. Tokyo probably won’t win any relays this weekend, but their women’s 4 x 100 freestyle could be their strongest showing. It would only be a minor upset to see Madden win the 400 freestyle, though Neale is still the favorite heading into the match. Vladimir Morozov, Nandor Nemeth, Pedro Spajari, Ivan Girev, Maarten Brzoskowski, Daniil Pasynkov, and Christian Quintero round out Tokyo’s male freestyle group. Tokyo is much stronger in the 50 and 100 free than they are the 200 and 400 and could therefor have some trouble in this discipline in Match 11.

The New York Breakers have a robust freestyle group with Brendon Smith, Jakub Majerski, Jakub Kraska, Stan Pijnenburg, Matt Temple, and Meiron Cheruti on the men’s side. Smith has to be considered the favorite to win the men’s 400 free, while Majerski, Kraska, Pijnenburg, and Temple can put together a very strong free relay. New York’s women’s freestyle roster includes Daria Ustinova, Kornelia Fiedkiewicz, Marrit Steenbergen, Arina Surkova, and Alicja Tchorz. New York’s women haven’t been particularly impressive in freestyle yet this season and need to step up their game in order to score any significant points in Match 11.

Edge: Iron (women & men)

IM

The Tokyo Frog Kings have Daiya Seto, Yui Ohashi, Paige Madden, Leah Gingrich, Daniil Pasynkov, Chihiro Igarashi, and Vladimir Morozov to cover all the bases in the IMs, though they are undeniably best at the 200- and 400-meter distances. Ohashi and Madden have been an especially strong team in the 400 IM, while Seto alone dominates that event for Tokyo on the men’s side.

Iron, meanwhile, is much stronger in the 100 IM with Leonardo Santos, Marco Orsi, and Constanza Cocconcelli all capable of winning the four-length race. Santos, Maria Ugolkova, Africa Zamorano, and Erik Persson also cover the 200 and 400 IMs quite well, though it would be a surprise to see any of them win one in Match 11.

The DC Trident has a small but formidable IM crew with Andreas Vazaios, Jay Litherland, Bailey Andison, Szuszanna Jakabos, and Klaudia Nazieblo. Andison has been DC’s best IM’er this season while Vazaios has also had some good races. Litherland, Jakabos, and Nazieblo look great on paper but are yet to swim a particularly impressive IM this season.

The New York Breakers have two stars in Abbie Wood and Brendon Smith. Wood may be the tentative favorite to win both the 200 and 400 IMs, while Smith could challenge Seto in the 400 IM. Joe Litchfield, Stan Pijnenburg, Philip Heintz, and Marrit Steenbergen have made for a solid support crew in season 3 but will need to be on top of their game if they’re to have any hope of top-5 finishes in any IM race in Match 11.

Edge: Tokyo Frog Kings (women & men)

Relays

Iron is able to put together the strongest relays of the four teams competing in Match 11, though the New York Breakers and Tokyo have been sharper than Iron on the men’s freestyle relay. Tokyo is also arguably better than Iron in the men’s medley relay. New York’s women’s medley relay could also upset Iron for the victory on Wednesday, though it’s unlikely. The DC Trident also have pretty strong medley relays on both the men’s and women’s side, and their freestyle relays have shown some promise. Notably, in Match 9, both of DC’s freestyle relays in both the women’s and men’s events placed 4th and 5th.

Edge: Iron (women & men)

Projected Team Standings

Iron is a strong team, no doubt about it, though so is the DC Trident. DC’s match record does not truly reflect their potential since they have continually faced off against the league’s five best teams–Energy Standard, Cali Condors, London Roar, Toronto Titans, and the LA Current. Tokyo hasn’t had an easy schedule either, though DC beating Iron in Match 5 is more impressive than Tokyo beating the New York Breakers in both Match 2 and Match 10.

1. Team Iron
2. DC Trident
3. Tokyo Frog Kings
4. New York Breakers