New York Breakers Add 3 Swimmers, 2 Coaches to Roster for US Derby Meet

The New York Breakers of the International Swimming League have added 3 new faces to their roster for this weekend’s US Derby meet at the University of Maryland. Brendon Smith and Mikkayla Sheridan will join a roster that includes fellow Australians Madi Wilson and Clyde Lewis this weekend. The team will also add University of Tennessee-based Ryan Coetzee to their roster for the Derby.

The Breakers have a 5th Australian on their team, Jack McLoughlin, but McLoughlin is absent from the team’s lineup for their final meet of the season.

Smith finished in 2nd place at October’s Australian Short Course Championships in the 400 free and earlier this year finished 2nd in the 400 IM at the Australian Swimming Championships in long course.

Smith’s best times:

LCM Best SCM Best
200 free 1:51.30 1:47.02
400 free 3:52.15 3:43.85
200 IM 2:02.37 2:00.70
400 IM 4:14.91

The 24-year old Sheridan was a member of Australia’s team for the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships and World Championships. She won a gold medal at the Pan Pacific Championships in the 800 free relay.

Sheridan’s best times:

LCM Best SCM Best
200 free 1:57.48 1:55.01
400 free 4:09.36 4:02.00

Coetzee, meanwhile, finished a 9-time All-American career at the University of Tennessee in 2018. He’s another South African on a roster full of ties to the country – general manager Tina Andrew and head coach Peter Andrew are both South African by birth, and the team has South Americans Chris Reid and Brad Tandy on the roster as well.

Coetzee is primarily a butterflier, and was on South Africa’s team for the 2019 World Championships. He was just 36th in the 50 fly and 30th in the 100 fly at Worlds, but both times were well-off his bests.

Coetzee’s best times:

LCM Best SCM Best SCY Best
50 free 22.39 21.75 19.43
100 free 49.88 48.23 43.09
50 fly 23.45 22.73
100 fly 51.85 50.97 45.47

All 3 swimmers are direct replacements for key Breakers who will be missing this weekend. Smith will replace Jonathan Gomez, who struggled through his first 2 meets with the Breakers scoring a net of just 3 points in 2 races in Budapest (including a 1 point penalty). He will miss the meet with an undisclosed health issue. While the change was driven by a health issue, after a breakout summer, the move could be an upgrade for the Breakers – though on paper, Smith doesn’t replace Gomez in his best event, the 200 fly.

Sheridan replaces German swimmer Reva Foos who scored 7 points in 2 races for the Breakers in Budapest and was a member of 2 relays. That includes a 5th-place finish in the 200 free (1:56.50) and a 6th-place finish in the 400 free (4:04.99). Sheridan is of similar quality as Foos, so there’s an opportunity for the Breakers to hold serve in that exchange.

Coetzee, meanwhile, will replace Germany’s Marius Kusch, who scored 10 individual points in 3 races in Budapest – including a 3rd-place finish in the 100 fly. He was the Breakers’ best 100 butterflier through the first 2 meets. The Breakers had announced another butterflier, Justin Lynch, but Lynch is not on their roster for Maryland – meaning he won’t make an appearance for the team in 2019.

Both Foos and Kusch represent Germany internationally, as does fellow Breaker Marco Koch, but in spite of their absences this week, neither Foos nor Kusch appear on the start lists for the German Short Course Championships happening this week.

Update: Kusch did wind up swimming at German Nationals.

The team will also be without Jacob Pebley, who raced only at their first meet in Lewisville, and Alys Thomas.

The team has also announced the addition of 2 new coaches to their staff: Don Wagner, the CEO and head coach of the Phoenix Aquatic Club, and Joe Benjamin, the head coach of Rancho San Dieguito Swim Team.

Wagner is a former head coach at Texas A&M University and the University of Alabama. He also worked at the Fullerton Aquatics Sports Team (FAST) where he coached 4-time Olympic gold medalist and hall of fame swimmer Janet Evans en route to her World Record in the 800 free.

Benjamin was named the San Diego Imperial Swimming Senior Coach of the Year in 2018.

Both coaches have achieved the highest status, level 5, from the American Swimming Coaches’ Association.

“We have an amazing team and exceptional staff and over the past two events, NY Breakers became a family,” General Manager Tina Andrew said. “We came up short of some of our goals at our first 2 meets but we are playing the long game. We are building a solid foundation where the only way is up. We don’t view our results as ‘losing,’ but as ‘learning,’ and we will continue with our team mantra of pushing the envelope and thinking outside of the box until we stand on top of the podium.”

The Breakers finished 4th in Group B action at their first 2 meets, which mathematically eliminates them from contention from the Las Vegas final. While they were beaten soundly by London Roar, the LA Current, and Iron at those meets, Group B was the deeper of the two groups, so the Breakers still have something to race for at the US Derby: an opportunity to pick off the Katie-Ledecky-less DC Trident. The Breakers will have to rely on a deep breaststroke group, which included a sweep of the 200 meter races in Budapest from Emily Escobedo and Marco Koch, and better swimming from vice-captain Michael Andrew to move up in the standings.

USA ISL TEAM STANDINGS
Rank Team Season Points Total Meet Points
1 Cali Condors 6 947.5
2 LA Current 5 865
3 DC Trident 4 662.5
4 NY Breakers 2 571

New York Breakers Roster, 2019 US Derby Meet – Maryland

WOMEN NATIONALITY MEN NATIONALITY
BLACK, HALEY CANADA ANDREW, MICHAEL USA
BLUME, PERNILLE DENMARK CHIERIGHINI, MARCELO BRAZIL
DELOOF, ALI USA COETZEE, RYAN SOUTH AFRICA
DELOOF, CATIE USA DARRAGH, MACK CANADA
DELOOF, GABBY USA DELUCCA, JOAO BRAZIL
ESCOBEDO, EMILY USA KOCH, MARCO GERMANY
FOOS, REVA GERMANY LEWIS, CLYDE AUSTRALIA
LARSON, BREEJA USA PERIBONIO, TOMAS ECUADOR
LOVEMORE, TAYLA SOUTH AFRICA REID, CHRIS SOUTH AFRICA
NEAL, LIA USA SMITH, BRENDON AUSTRALIA
OVERHOLT, EMILY CANADA SPAJARI, PEDRO BRAZIL
SHERIDAN, MIKKAYLA AUSTRALIA TANDY, BRAD SOUTH AFRICA
WILSON, MADI AUSTRALIA TARASEVICH, GRIGORY RUSSIA
WOOD, ABBIE UK THORMEYER, MARKUS CANADA

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CHMI
4 years ago

Kusch swam prelims at German Short Course Nationals this morning (50 Fly: 23.09)

Sccoach
4 years ago

This NY team is really bad compared to the others

Rafael
Reply to  Sccoach
4 years ago

We all know this whole ISL is London Roar to lose..

Yozhik
Reply to  Rafael
4 years ago

Once I met an old man who was a guard of grain reserve at the time when it was ration on bread. He told me about his life then: “What you are guarding that’s what you are having”.
ISL format, rules, recruiting process and prize distribution was designed in London. Hosszu and Pellegrini were, if to use Don Corleone terminology, just pimps.

Corn Pop
Reply to  Yozhik
4 years ago

Its just that Roar got the core of the Australian team as a unit . Chambers Campbells Atherton Winnington Wilson McKeon because Rob Woodhouse is an experienced Sports Agent & they came prepared .. its called professionalism .

There is no comparison to the DC team of WIMMIN ‘r’US or the wacky outfit from the metroplis up north. .

Yozhik
Reply to  Corn Pop
4 years ago

That not everything is peaceful and euphoric within ISL will be seen as soon as the top swimmers of the winner of the Final Match will get their prizes. In no way it can be comparable even to Wimbledon quarterfinal or World Cup winner. But the huge difference in money earned between few recipients of these noticeable prizes and majority of the rest of the league will so visible that there certainly will be questions why this outcome was predetermined in London’s meet of ISL organizers. Why the German team died almost immediately after creation? Why there were so much hesitation on American side. Is it because they felt that there wouldn’t be a fair share?
You can attribute… Read more »

Troyy
Reply to  Yozhik
4 years ago

London getting first dibs on Australians isn’t much different to what would happen if there were an Australian team. I think because of the extra travel Aussies have to do they’re probably always gonna gravitate mostly to a couple of teams so they can travel in groups.

Ol' Longhorn
Reply to  Sccoach
4 years ago

NYBroken

Sunny Cal
Reply to  Sccoach
4 years ago

Yep, & the 3 Deloof sisters continue going to every meet trying to earn that $.

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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