Avon native Madison Kennedy.
Avon native Madison Kennedy was in the pool on Saturday as the International Swimming League (ISL), a new international professional swimming league, made their debut in Indianapolis at the University of Indiana.
Kennedy is a member of the Washington, D.C.-based DC Trident who were competing against Energy Standard (Paris), Cali Condors (San Francisco) and Aqua Centurions (Rome) in the league’s first-ever dual meet.
The competition is held over two days with 16 events and a two-hour session each day. The roster consists of 12 men and 12 women. Energy Standard leads Cali Condors, 250-229½ after the first day of competition with DC Trident holding a slight 165-163½ lead over the Aqua Centurions for third place.
Kennedy is a freestyle sprinter and compete in two events Saturday. She was fifth in the 50 meter freestyle with a time of 24.52 – fastest on the Trident women’s squad. She also swam the leadoff leg on 4×100 meter women’s freestyle for DC Trident’s B relay team that finished seventh.
The ISL meets are being held in short course pools that are 25 meters in length. Long course pools that are generally used at the Olympics and world championship meets every two years are 50 meters in length.
On Sunday, Kennedy is expected to be race for DC Trident in the women’s 50 meter freestyle Skins knockout. The knockout features three heats. Eight swimmers will swim in the first race. Four will advance to the semifinals and two will advance to the final. The top four finishers can earn double to triple the points they would otherwise earn placing in another individual race.
Kennedy could also compete Sunday in 4×100 mixed freestyle relay, the 4×100 medley relay or the 4×50 mixed medley relay if it is needed to break a tie among two teams at the end of the meet. It will be up to DC Trident head coach Cyndi Gallagher and her coaching staff to make that call.
Competition begins Sunday at 2 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN3.
Paris-based Energy Standard had a great first day in the pool. Energy Standard won seven of 16 individual events to take the lead.
Sarah Sjöström won two individual events, sweeping the women’s 100 meter butterfly (the first event in league history) and 50 freestyle while contributing the fastest split on Energy Standard’s winning 4×100 freestyle relay. Teammate Lilly King won the 200 breaststoke and 50 breaststroke. Chad LeClos won the men’s 100 butterfly and had the fastest split on the winning 4×100 men’s freestyle relay.
There are six regular season dual meets. DC Trident returns to the pool next weekend in Naples, Italy where they will swim against the Cali Condors, Aqua Centurions and Energy Standard for a second time.
DC Trident will face all of the American teams – Cali Condors, Los Angeles Current and New York Breakers – on Nov. 15-17 in College Park, Maryland to close out the dual meet portion of the schedule.
The top two American teams and top two international teams will qualify for the league championship finals in Las Vegas in December.
