Max Litchfield Out, Banic into 100 Fly, Whittle to Make ISL Debut in Match #6

2020 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – MATCH 6

In addition to the aforementioned league MVP Sarah Sjostrom of Energy Standard, a new absence has emerged for Match #6 of the 2020 ISL season for the defending champions: Max Litchfield is also expected to miss the meet.

While Energy Standard should, still, cruise to victory, they’ll need to get healthy in time for the late November finals in order to contend with the current league-leading Cali Condors.

This also means we won’t get a showdown between the brothers Max and Joe, who has had a breakthrough season for the New York Breakers.

Energy Standard will, meanwhile, receive the services back of Femke Heemskerk, who has rejoined the bubble after testing positive for coronavirus in the leadup. They’ll ease her back into competition with just 3 races: the individual 50 free, as the anchor of a 400 medley relay, and as an acnhor of a 400 free relay.

Other changes for Energy Standard is that they’ve called Maddy Banic up to the individual events roster, where she’ll swim the 100 fly in the slot normally occupied by Sjostrom, in addition to a pair of relays.

Lucy Hope will make her ISL debut as a relay-only swimmer, while Tera van Vliet will join Sjostrom as reserves for the meet.

On the men’s side, Andrius Sidlauskas has been called up to the active roster, with entries in the 200 breast and 200 IM for Sunday, taking the spot previously occupied by Litchfield.

This meet will also see the debut of a young Brit by the name of 16-year old Jacob Whittle, who has raced some of the best sprint freestyle times at his age in the history of the sport. What Whittle is capable of at this meet isn’t easy to project given his age, but we have seen a lot of young swimmers break through in the ISL, moreso than their veteran teammates.

The Breakers have also struggled generally in the free relays, including a 51.0 split on their “B” relay, which missed the minimum time standard, in the last meet.

The Breakers, meanwhile, have moved Jan Switkowski to the bench for this meet. He started the season as an individual swimmer, in Match #4 was moved to relay-only, and will sit out this match. Switkowski struggled in ISL season #1 as well. His free relay split last week was 48.40, so that will be the target for Whittle to beat, though this opportunity could be as much about encouraging the young phenom to stick with the Breakers into the future, when he could bloom into a superstar.

Moving Switkowski out also shifts the Breakers’ men’s medley relay. They had been using Michael Andrew on backstroke of their top medley and Joe Litchfield on fly, but are now moving Andrew to the fly leg of their “B” relay, Litchfield to the backstroke leg of their “A” relay, and Michal Poprawa to the fly leg of their “A” relay after a good showing in the team’s last meet.

Swimmers Relay-Only & Out By Team:

Energy Standard Out

Energy Standard Relay Only

  • Ben Proud
  • Sergey Shevtsov

Toronto Titans Out

  • Candice Hall
  • Tayla Lovemore
  • Eli Wall
  • Daniil Pasynkov

Toronto Titans Relay Only

  • Annika Apostalon
  • Claire Fisch
  • Yuri Kisil*
  • Andriy Govorov*
  • Brent Hayden*

* – any of these 3 are eligible to move into an individual event, as the Titans have 1 more individual slot available on the men’s side. That’s likely to be Govorov in the 50 fly on Monday.

Aqua Centurions Out

  • Federica Pellegrini*
  • Apostolos Papastamos
  • Kathryn Greenslade*
  • Stefanie Pirozzi*

Aqua Centurions Relay Only

  • Larissa Oliveira*
  • Sasha Touretski*
  • Marcelo Chierighini*
  • Gabriel Santos*
  • Pedro Spajari*
  • Breno Correia*

* – any of these 4 are eligible to move into an individual event, as Aqua have 1 more individual slot available on the women’s side.

New York Breakers Out

  • Jeanette Ottesen
  • Lewis Clareburt
  • Chris Reid
  • Jan Switkowski

Note: the Breakers have 17 men and 15 women, which is why there are 3 men and only 1 women on this list. Ottesen has gone home for the season, so the 14 Breakers active for this meet will be their team for the rest of the season.

New York Breakers Relay Only

  • Signe Bro*
  • Chloe Golding*
  • Daria S. Ustinova*
  • Jacob Whittle
  • Damien Wierling

* – any of these 3 are eligible to move into an individual event, as the Breakers have 1 more individual slot available on the women’s side.

 

 

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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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