The International Swimming League (ISL) has announced one last round of ‘finalized’ rosters for the 2020 league season, cementing the lineups of the defending league runners-up London Roar, as well as the expansion Tokyo Frog Kings and Italy-based Aqua Centurions.
The last batch of announcements sees one final change for the Aqua Centurions, who have swapped out French swimmer Lara Grangeon in favor of Hungarian Evelyn Verraszto. Neither swimmer participated in the ISL last season, either.
Grangeon herself was already a late addition to the roster, as the team had to scramble to fill slots after a large portion of the Italian swimmers in the league withdrew from the meet.
In the swap, the team basically nets-out swimmers with similar skill sets as IMers, middle-distance freestylers, and 200 stroke swimmers with a lot of versatility.
Neither swimmer has peaked in the pool lately. For the 31-year old Verraszto, she hasn’t swum a best time in a primary event since 2014, while for Grangeon, a shift to open water that has seen her already qualify for the Olympic Games has pulled her away from the pool.
Verraszto’s Lifetime Bests, and Quad Bests:
| SCM Lifetime Best | SCM Best Since Rio | LCM Lifetime Best | LCM Best Since Rio | |
| 200 free | 1:52.61 | 1:56.08 | 1:56.51 | 1:58.44 |
| 400 free | 3:59.68 | N/A | 4:12.19 | 4:23.36 |
| 200 back | 2:05.83 | 2:08.67 | 2:10.45 | 2:13.87 |
| 50 fly | 27.19 | 27.35 | 26.09 | 27.35 |
| 100 fly | 58.21 | 1:00.76 | 58.42 | 59.57 |
| 200 fly | 2:08.68 | 2:12.30 | 2:08.33 | 2:12.63 |
| 200 IM | 2:04.64 | 2:08.09 | 2:09.87 | 2:12.62 |
| 400 IM | 4:38.50 | N/A | 4:38.50 | 4:46.39 |
According to the depth chart built by SwimSwam’s Jared Anderson, in spite of Verraszto’s recent shift away from the events, she still might be the team’s best option in the IM races, and adds depth in other areas.
Evelyn’s brother David Verraszto is a member of the host Iron team. As she already lives in Budapest, the last-minute addition shouldn’t create many travel conflicts.
Updated Aqua Centurions Roster:
AQUA CENTURIONS
| MEN | COUNTRY | WOMEN | COUNTRY |
| Mykhailo Romanchuk | UKR | Federica Pellegrini | ITA |
| Fabio Scozzoli | ITA | Martina Carraro | ITA |
| Sebastian Szabo | HUN | Etienne Pires de Medeiros | BRA |
| Alessandro Miressi | ITA | Valentine Dumont | BEL |
| Matteo Rivolta | ITA | Lidon Munoz del Campo | ESP |
| Nicolo Martinenghi | ITA | Arianna Castiglioni | ITA |
| Apostolos Papastamos | GRE | Katrina Konopka Reid | USA |
| Marcelo Chierighini | BRA | Larissa Martins de Oliveira | BRA |
| Leonardo Gomes De Deus | BRA | Katalin Burian | HUN |
| Gabriel Santos Da Silva | BRA | Haley Black | CAN |
| Pedro Spajari | BRA | Kathryn Greenslade | GBR |
| Breno Martins Correia | BRA | Stefania Pirozzi | ITA |
| Luiz Altamir Melo | BRA | Alexandra Touretski | SUI |
| Philip Heintz | GER | Theodora Drakou | GRE |
| Fabio Santi | BRA | Tain Bruce | GBR |
| Evelyn Verraszto | HUN |
Is there a deadline for all ISL teams to finalize their rosters? And is that 1 week prior to the start of the ISL season?
I’ve heard many different ‘deadlines,’ but the ISL has not answered those questions from the media. I suspect that it’s been a moving target that has been reactionary to different changes in the circumstances.
We’ve seen this approach in a lot of places, which is why it can be hard to follow the rules.