ISL Depth Charts 2020: DC Trident Relying On NCAA Converts With Retooled Roster

INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE 2020: DC TRIDENT

• 2019 finish: 6th
• 2019 MVP: Siobhan Haughey (99 MVP points)

Full Roster

2020 Depth Charts

Our depth charts are equal parts research and prognostication. While most of our ordering is based around best times on record, we’ve also done some guesswork based on time conversions from short course yards and/or long course meters, or in cases where athletes don’t have recent results in a specific event. These depth charts are intended to show the top options for each event, even if the specific event lineup may prevent a top swimmer from entering all of the events where they rank in the top two.

Potential skin races are shown in blue, and the events with relay considerations in red.

Strengths

Last year, the Trident were known as a distance-oriented team. That title slips a little on the women’s side with Katie Ledecky not returning to the ISL. But Zane Grothe is still a top distance guy on the men’s side.

In fact, the entire men’s freestyle group should be quite solid. There’s no single Dressel-level standout, but adding Meiron Cheruti and Matheus Santana without losing any major men’s sprinters is a big win.

Even with the high-profile loss of Ledecky, the DC women appear primed to once again lead the team in scoring. They added a strong group of NCAA alums on the women’s side (sprinter Ky-Lee Perry and breaststrokers Lindsey Kozelsky and Miranda Tucker might be the most impactful) to go along with LA Current-to-DC Trident free agents Amy Bilquist and Margo Geer.

Weaknesses

The Trident will struggle in butterfly, for both men and women. On the women’s side, Leah Gingrich was a late addition but immediately slots into the top spot in the 50 and 100 fly – that’s not a great sign for team strength there. Men’s fly is just a little bit thin, although they’ve got complementary specialists: Zach Harting is a 200 specialist and Giles Smith much more of a sprinter.

The men’s IMs look a little thin… but there’s high-upside potential with some NCAA types like Andrew Loy and Tommy Cope.

Skins

Free: The team’s MVP from last year was Siobhan Haughey, who joined Energy Standard in free agency. That’s a tough loss, and it remains to be seen if the new additions like Rozaliya Nasretdinova, Bilquist, and Perry can hang tough. All three are probably better pure sprinters than Haughey, but might not have Haughey’s great multi-round endurance. For the men, Zach Apple should be a great skin option, if he can skate by the first round.

Back: The women could be in OK shape. Bilquist is a good sprint backstroker, and so is Ali Galyer. The men will be in a little tougher. Mark Nikolaev is a solid sprinter, but men’s backstrokes are loaded in the ISL.

Breast: There’s a lot of unknown here, but great potential. Kozelsky and Tucker are both great short course yards sprinters. So are Ian Finnerty and Conner McHugh – all four are former NCAA standouts. But Finnerty was extremely up and down last year in the ISL, so he’s got something to prove.

Fly: As mentioned above, fly is probably a weak point for both men and women. It might be Gingrich and Nasretdinova for the women and Cheruti and Smith or Santana for the men.

Outlook

The Trident have a much less star-studded roster this year with the departures of Ledecky and Natalie Coughlin. But the roster this year might actually be better set up to succeed in the ISL format.

It won’t be easy, as last year’s top teams really only consolidated talent further. But DC has a much better sprint group than last year and if their NCAA pickups pan out, the relays could be really deep. There’s a chance their breaststrokers really pop, which would open up a big opportunity for skin race points if breaststroke gets the call.