ISL Depth Charts 2020: New York Breakers Could Benefit From Multi-Stroke Skins

INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE 2020: NEW YORK BREAKERS

• 2019 finish: 8th
• 2019 MVP: Michael Andrew (100 MVP points)

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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

Andrew gives the team a lot of viability in the skin races, which will take place in potentially all four strokes this season. We’ll have more on those below.

With Ottesen now in the mix, New York should be strong in women’s butterfly, and the breaststroke group looks much better and deeper with the additions of Vasey and Renshaw to go with Escobedo.

Weaknesses

Relay depth is going to be a big issue. Adding names like Richards and Wierling to the men’s sprint group means the A relays could actually be fairly solid. But the depth drops off considerably, and it’ll be a real push for New York to get solid points from its B relays.

Losing Temple in the Australian exodus clears out the men’s butterfly races a bit. And Cameron McEvoy would have been a really key figure as likely the team’s top entrant in both the 50 and 100 freestyles.

Skins

Free: the loss of McEvoy hurts here. Andrew is still probably the top option for the men, and Ottesen for the women, but both would need the right field to make it into the later rounds.

Back: again, Andrew is a pretty good bet here, and Litchfield has also been 23-low. For the women, the late addition of Tchorz should be high-impact, although her best time in the 50 back is from back in 2017.

Breast: Andrew is showing his value here as the do-everything skin race star. This is easily his best stroke for the skin event, though. For the women, Vasey and Escobedo should be great depth, though probably never the favorite to win.

Fly: Ottesen is a great sprint flyer and probably in the mix to go deep in a skin event. Andrew is again the top man, though Switkowski has been 22-high in his career.

Outlook

The Breakers will have their work cut out for them to improve on an 8th-place finish from last year. The addition of multi-stroke skin races is a boost to their fortunes over some of the other returning teams at the bottom.

We wouldn’t expect New York to be in a position to pick the skin stroke – that requires winning a relay – very often. But they’re built to be just fine with that, with Andrew penciled in as a solid entrant in any stroke and the women’s roster pretty strong in fly and breast.