Toronto Scored 71.5 Fewer Points in Skins Than Cali (Match 7, Day 2 Wrap-Up)

2021 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – SEASON 3, MATCH 7

• Thursday, September 16 – Friday, September 17
• 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm EST (8:00 pm – 10:00 pm Local Time)
• Piscina Felice Scandone, Naples, Italy
• Short Course Meters (25m – SCM) Format
• ISL Season 3 Schedules, Start Times, & More
• Teams Competing: Cali Condors, Toronto Titans, Iron, New York Breakers
• Omega Live Results
• Day 1 Recap

Day 2 Recap

FINAL TEAM SCORES

1. Cali Condors, 581.0
2. Toronto Titans, 529.5
3. Iron, 362.5
4. NY Breakers, 293.0

The Cali Condors have done it again with their third match win of the season, but it didn’t go down without a good fight. The Titans entered day two of match seven with the narrow lead over the Condors. Throughout the match, Toronto lost their lead to Cali but re-gained it, twice, including right before the skins events where the Condors soared over the Titans to clinch the match win. Meanwhile, Iron was able to find extra leverage over the NY Breakers to increase their chances of qualifying top-6 into the semi-finals.

Cali’s Edge on Toronto

Toronto was able to match Cali’s seven event wins total, making the day two standings a game of cat-and-mouse. Kasia Wasick kicked things off in the women’s 100 free with a Polish national record, but was immediately cancelled out with two Condor wins. Cali’s Justin Ress won the men’s 100 free while Kelsi Dahlia won the women’s 200 fly, momentarily taking over Toronto’s lead.

Toronto quickly answered with double 1-2 finishes from Alberto Razzetti and Jay Lelliot in the men’s 200 fly, worth 19 points, and a combined 26-point pick-up from Kylie Masse and Lisa Bratton in the women’s 100 back. Those two back-to-back wins put the Titans in the lead by 30 points.

Shortly after, though, Condor Coleman Stewart came back with a 15-point win in the men’s 100 back. Both 100 IM events kept the gap between Cali and Toronto relatively the same as Condor Beata Nelson stormed to a new women’s American record while Titan Finlay Knox clocked another men’s Canadian record.

Then, Lilly King and Molly Hannis combined for a crucial Cali 1-2 finish that out-scored Toronto’s swimmers by 26 points. Nic Fink kept the momentum going for the Condors in the men’s race with his narrow win over Titan Fabian Schwingenschlogl, putting Cali in the lead again.

Three events later, Luc Kroon and Blake Pieroni gave the Titans 15 points to close the gap they had on the Condors to just four points. Into the mixed medley relay anchors, Toronto’s Kayla Sanchez ran down Cali’s Natalie Hinds to give the Titans a 20-point relay victory, putting the two teams into a tie heading into the final four events.

Toronto’s Razzetti and Max Litchfield gave the Titans one more point surge with a combined 27-point pick-up thanks to their check-point bonus points. The Condors were only able to score five points in the event. This put Toronto into the lead by 20 points. Despite matching Cali’s event wins, the skins ultimately decided Cali as match seven winner.

The Condors soared with Nelson and Dahlia as the duo swept all three women’s 50 fly skins rounds and scored 53 points. Meanwhile, Louise Hansson tied for fifth place in the quarter-final before being knocked out of the semi-final. Teammate Michelle Coleman placed eighth in the quarter-final, totaling the Titans’ event score total of 11.5 points.

Toronto had one last shot to snag extra points in the men’s 50 back skins, but saw a 5-8 finish from Shane Ryan and Cole Pratt, managing five points. Meanwhile, Condor Stewart placed second in the final while teammate Ress finished third in the semi-final after going 2-3 in the quarter-final, scoring 35 points total.

At the end of the skins, the Condors earned 88 points from both skins events to the Titans’ mere 16.5 points from the skins, giving Cali the 51.5-point winning margin over Toronto.

Iron’s Late Moves, NY’s Chutes & Ladders

Iron had pulled out a plethora of big point moves on day two to further themselves ahead of the Breakers. NY was able to lean on a number of big events to build momentum along, yet fell victim to poor finishes and jackpots that ultimately earned them fourth place.

Entering the men’s 200 fly, Iron had a 16-point lead over NY for third place. Breakers Matt Temple and Jakub Majerski finished 4-5 in the event to earn nine points while Iron’s Leonardo Santos was only able to score three points. The Breakers now closed the gap to just ten points behind Iron. Then, Breaker Paulina Peda avoided the 5th-8th place jackpot, where both Iron swimmers wound up finishing. Iron’s lead over the Breakers diminished to just five points.

Iron quickly made that up, however, with a 2-4 men’s 100 back finish, worth 12 points, from Robert Glinta and Lorenzo Mora to NY’s jack-potted 6-8 finish. Iron then out-scored NY twice in two men’s events, first in the 100 IM by three points and in the 100 breast by seven points.

Iron had basically solidified third place with Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Nicholas Santos back-to-back 12-point wins in the individual 50 fly events and Barbora Seemanova‘s women’s 200 free win.

The Breakers were able to see a strong finishing effort from Jakub Kraska, who took third in the men’s 200 free, yet only scored four points in the mixed medley relay with a disastrous 7-8 finish. Even with Abbie Wood‘s 20-point win and Brendon Smith‘s third-place finish in the 400 IMs, the gap between NY and Iron was too great to take down.

Robert Glinta was the cherry on top for Iron with his upset men’s 50 back skins win over Coleman Stewart. Glinta alone scored 30 points to Stewart’s 22 points. In the end, Iron had finished with 69.5 more points than the Breakers.