Pancake Hot Take: 2019 ISL Championships in Las Vegas Wrap-up

This is Pancake Hot Take, where we rate racing on a scale of 1-5 pancakes, and give you our highlights. On this episode, we are taking you through the entirety of racing from the 2019 International Swimming League Championships in Las Vegas.

The 2019 ISL Grand Finale was a true spectacle, with lights, cameras, action, all highlighted by 2 world records on Day 1 of the competition, and coming down to the final event of the meet for the team title. For that, I gave the ISL Championships…

5 Pancakes

Let’s get into it.

Top 5 Swims of the Meet

5. Beryl Gastadello, women’s 50 fly – 24.88

4. Adam Peaty, men’s 100 breast – 55.92 (US Open Record)

3. Women’s Skins Race (with team title on the line) – Campbell V Sjostrom

2. Caeleb Dressel, men’s 50 free – 20.24 (World Record)

1. Daiya Seto, men’s 400 IM – 3:54.81 (World Record)

Top 5 Surprises of the Meet

5. Daiya Seto winning BIG in a dirty double on day 2 – 1:50.76 200 IM (4th fastest in history)/1:48.77 200 Fly (.5 off his own WR)

4. Sarah Sjostrom Finishing just 4th in the 100 fly (56.35). She bounced back in her other events though, ultimately taking the skins title and overall League MVP for the Season

3. Men’s 50 Breast: Surprise #1 – Caeleb Dressel actually swam the event. Surprise #2 – Nic Fink topped a field full of international talent in a time of 25.75

2. Women’s 50 Breast: If you didn’t see this race, go watch it again. Lilly King was behind nearly the entire 50, and her ability to finish 1st was nothing short of Phelpsian

1. Energy Standard, after being down to London Roar by nearly 40 points heading into the skins races, pulls out the win to take the inaugural ISL Championship title

Syrup on Top

ISL has shown that its events are spectator friendly and a blast to watch, and we’re only getting more. They have announced 2 more teams (Toronto and Tokyo) and we can expect a 27-match season in 2020, including a post-season consisting of the #2/3 teams in each group of 5 having a playoff match to see who gets to go toe-to-toe with the #1 teams for ISL supremacy.