While You Were Sleeping: Big Storylines from Match 3, Day 1 of 2020 ISL Season

2020 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE: MATCH 3

• Saturday, October 24: 12 PM – 2 PM Local Time (6 AM – 8 AM Eastern, 7 PM – 9 PM Japan Time)
• Sunday, October 25: 5 PM – 7 PM Local Time (12 PM – 2 PM Eastern, 1 AM – 3 AM J+1 Japan)
• Duna Arena – Budapest, Hungary
• Short Course Meters (SCM) Format
• 2020 ISL Scoring Format
• 2020 ISL Prize Money and Bonuses
• How To Watch
• ISL Match 3, Day 1 Full Results
• Teams: Toronto Titans, Tokyo Frog Kings, Aqua Centurions, LA Current

For our American audience, which is about half of SwimSwam’s readers, Saturday’s 6AM Eastern start time is the first of 6 early-morning sessions that we’ll see during this ISL season.

For those who didn’t wake up to watch it, or those around the world who may have missed it for other reasons, there was some excitement on day 2 of the meet. That came largely in the form of the introduction of two new teams, the Tokyo Frog Kings and Toronto Titans, who each made their ISL debuts, giving us the first taste of what things are going to look like this year for those teams.

We are also, for the first time this season, in the midst of a competitive team battle for the title, with the LA Current leading the Tokyo Frog Kings by just 14 points heading into day 2 of the meet.

Team Standings After Day 1

1. LA Current – 262.5
2. Tokyo Frog Kings – 248.5
3. Toronto Titans – 208.5
4. Aqua Centurions – 156.5

LA Current won both of the day’s medley relays, which gives them a significant advantage on day 2 in that they get to pick the strokes for the high-scoring ‘skins’ races at the end of the meet. In those races, each team puts up 2 swimmers for a field of 8 in the opening 50 meter round. The top 4 advance to the 2nd round 3 minutes later, and then the top 2 advance to the final 3 minutes later. Points, and jackpots, are available in each round of racing.

Here are the biggest things you missed if you missed day 1 of the meet.

Fewer Jackpots

We saw a marked decline in Jackpot scoring on day 1 of match 3, owing both to a more balanced meet and perhaps some of the swimmers on their 2nd meet from Aqua and Current not being quite as sharp as they were last week.

On Saturday, there were 26 swims that were ‘Jacked,’ including Arianna Castiglione’s no-show in the 200 breaststroke.

In match 1, featuring the Cali Condors and Energy Standard, 46 swims were ‘Jacked,’ while in match 2, led by LA Current, 36 swims were ‘Jacked.’

Ryan Murphy‘s 24-pointer in the men’s 200 backstroke was the biggest theft of the day, and he was more than a second ahead of the runner-up Ryosuke Irie in that event. That swim is basically the difference between the two teams right now, and the reason why he leads the MVP scoring with 37 points (Current are currently 1-2-3).

This is a trend we’ll have to watch. It’s possible that this is variation just based on the way competitions align; however, it’s also possible that swimmers at the end of rosters are understanding their value in not being Jackpotted and giving the extra push in their races.

Slotting Tokyo and Toronto into the Team Battle

The team battle is becoming clearer now that we’ve seen all 10 teams race at least one day of competition.

What we learned on Saturday is that Tokyo is about as good as we thought they are and a contender to qualify for the final 4. They don’t have a flashy team, as is evidenced by the fact that their highest-ranking swimmer in MVP scoring is Yui Ohashi, tied for 9th with just 17 points after day 1.

But they don’t get Jackpotted a lot, either.

When they face the juggernauts of the league, Cali Condors and Energy Standard, we’ll have to see how that roster build holds up for them.

Toronto is a solid team, and should make the semi-finals, but at this point seems unlikely to qualify for the final.

As for the returning teams, LA Current is showing about what we would’ve expected from them. They had a very good day 2 in their opening meet, so they should be in control of this meet.

Aqua, who have finished last in every meet in their ISL history, look on track to do the same here. They’re the 4th-best team here, and are swimming like it, not really even living up to their potential.

This is good news for the DC Trident in their effort to make the semi-finals, as Aqua looks like they’re all-but-out of contention for a spot in the top 8. DC finished 3rd, ahead of Aqua, in the team’s last meet.

The Monday-Tuesday matchup between DC and the New York Breakers could set up the battle for 8th vs. 9th. New York, with the league’s toughest schedule, is almost in a must-beat situation there already, and if DC beats the Breakers, they should be able to qualify for the semi-finals.

Anton McKee‘s Breakout

I wrote about this fully here, But Anton McKee‘s ISL and Icelandic Records in the 200 breaststroke were a pleasant surprise for the Titans on Saturday. This is not a roster stacked with breaststrokers (though Eric Persson had a good swim to finish 3rd in the 200), and seeing him come through was huge.

4th is probably not going to happen based on what we saw Saturday, but Toronto could stake a claim to 5th place in the league as a team if their freestylers perform better. New dad Michael Chadwick was 8th in the 50 free while Blake Pieroni was just 6th.

Ties!

There were 2 ties atop the table in individual races on Saturday. In the women’s 50 free, LA Current teammates Beryl Gastaldello and Abbey Weitzeil tied in 23.79.

The men’s 50 backstroke also saw a tie, and maybe a more surprising one: Ryan Murphy and Shane Ryan put up matching 23.06s.

Ryan, who swam for the Current last season in a fill-in role at one meet and had mixed-results, had a big first day of competition in the 2020 season. Besides that 50 back, which makes the Current’s choice for the skins race a lot harder (they’ll still probably choose backstroke), he also broke the Irish Record in the 100 fly (50.53) and avoided getting Jacked, though he was just 7th.

He looks as though he might become a very valuable piece for the Titans this season.

Lisa Bratton Breakthrough

A US National Teamer since high school, the 24-year old Bratton has been looking for her next breakthrough, and it may have come on Saturday.

First she swam 2:01.74 in the women’s 200 backstroke to beat, by almost a second, her more renowned teammate Kylie Masse. That’s historically been Bratton’s best event.

But then she split 57.37 on a leadoff leg of the women’s 400 medley relay, which was the 3rd-best split of the field behind Ali DeLoof (56.95) and again Masse (57.28), but not far behind either.

Bratton is the kind of swimmer this league is made for. With Regan Smith’s emergence in the US, it’s possible that Bratton will never make an Olympic team or a long course World Championship team. But she can still make some money in the ISL and be a big contributor, and if the league is able to grow their payouts to athletes, maybe even make a solid living wage from the league that wouldn’t be available elsewhere.