Phoebe Bacon jumped around behind Lane 4 adjusting her cap nervously as the heat before hers finished. When the swimmers cleared the pool, the 12-year-old placed a towel on the edge and smoothed it out, making sure it was perfect.
The final race of the day for the Tallyho swimmer was one of her weaker events, the 50-meter breaststroke.
“It’s a big testament to Phoebe’s character,” Tallyho Coach Dory Halbe said. “I think she really wanted to come out here and show people that she could shine in the other events.”
The breaststroke event was one of two in which she did not already hold the league record for the 11-12 girls’ age group. The other was the 50 freestyle.
Sunday at the MCSL’s individual all-star meet, she chose to swim both events.
Bacon took down her seventh record of the season in freestyle, eclipsing a six-year-old record held by Caroline McTaggart with a time of 27.63 seconds. Tia Thomas, who finished second, also went under the old record of 27.88 in a time of 27.81.
Bacon fell short in breaststroke, but managed to claim a second event title despite suffering an injury at the finish of the freestyle event.
At the touch in free, Bacon said her left elbow popped out and back in to place. She needed help out of the pool and quickly received medical attention.
“She came over and said, ‘I can’t really do this,’ and made a breaststroke pull motion, ‘but I feel fine,’ ” Halbe said.
Without any risk of further injury, Bacon opted to compete in breaststroke and fought against pain to edge Mill Creek Towne’s Riley Powell by .01 seconds, finishing in a time of 36.53.
“I didn’t even see the other girl,” Bacon said. “I was just racing.”
Bacon’s teammate and counterpart in the boys’ events, Brett Feyerick, swam to two first place finishes and bettered his own league records in both events.
Feyerick swam just under the all-area mark in freestyle with a time of 26.38 and edged out Cyrus Hashemi’s (NVSL, Vienna Aquatic) previous record of 26.44.
“I saw the time before, but it wasn’t in my head,” Feyerick said. “I just did my best and got it.”
Shortly after, Feyerick jumped in for his best event, the 50 backstroke. He dropped his MCSL and all-area record by .37 seconds down to a 28.47.
Bacon and Feyerick now hold every 11-12 league record except for those in breaststroke between them, although Rockville’s Chris Ma scared Feyerick’s butterfly record Sunday, touching in a time of 29.18, just .03 off of the record. Ma also won the 100 IM in 1:08.20.
Ben Long Zuo claimed the 11-12 boys’ 50 breaststroke for the fifth Tallyho win in the age group of the day, finishing in 35.64.
In the senior age group, Carsten Vissering concluded his storied career with Old Georgetown with a historic finish to in the 15-18 boys’ 100 breaststroke.
Vissering, a soon-to-be Southern Cal freshman, became the first swimmer in MCSL history to break the one-minute barrier in the 100 breaststroke. He commanded the race from the beginning and touched in a time of 59.56, smashing his previous best time and league record of 1:00.74 from last summer’s meet.
Vissering finished second in the 50 butterfly, edged by Glenwood’s Tom Benson, 25.88 to 25.91.
Brennan Novak, who has represented Potomac Glen since he was seven years old, finished his summer swimming career with his first two victories in his final all-star meet.
Novak outtouched Potomac’s Adrian Lin in the 100 free, 51.50 to 51.72, respectively. The two raced in the long course version of the same event at the Potomac Valley’s senior championship meet on Thursday where Lin was the first of the two to touch. But Novak got the win at Rockville Swim Center when the two were side by side.
“I couldn’t see him on the last 25 because I was breathing to the other side,” said Novak, a Harvard-bound graduate. “I just tried to get on the wall first.”
The pair have history racing each other, Novak for RMSC and Gonzaga, Lin for Nation’s Capital and Georgetown Prep. They will continue to build that history as they enter the ranks of Ivy League swimmers in the fall: Novak at Harvard, Lin at Yale.
Novak also won the 100 IM with a come-from-behind finish over Old Georgetown’s Alex Vissering. He split a 13.6 on the freestyle leg, according to a coaches watch, to claw back from a body-length deficit after breaststroke and pull ahead and win in a time of 59.57, nearly a two-second drop from his best time.
“I knew that if I could keep it close on the breast, I’d be able to finish strong,” Novak said. “It was my last 25 in the MCSL.”
In the non-senior events, Amanda Liu of Bethesda was the lone swimmer who will return in their age group next year to win an event. Liu, 13, won the 13-14 girls’ 50 backstroke in 31.55, followed by six 14-year-olds.
Other top finishers:
Rockville’s Adriano Ariotti claimed the 8&under boys’ 25 free (15.39) and 25 butterfly (17.26). … Carly Sebring of Damascus won the 9-10 girls’ 50 free (29.99) and 25 butterfly (14.81), nearly matching her own league mark in the latter. … Daleview’s Sammie Grant placed first in the 13-14 girls’ 50 free (27.34) and 100 IM (1:07.60). … Tilden Woods’s Timmy Ellett was a double winner in the 13-14 boys’ 50 back (28.48) and 100 IM (1:01.35), a half-second shy of the record. … Germantown’s Konnor Chen took home titles in the 9-10 boys’ 25 back (16.70) and 25 butterfly (14.97) — three hundredths of a second shy of his league record in fly. … Dylan Gribble of Manchester Farm won the 15-18 girls’ 100 IM (1:06.67) and 100 breast (1:14.98).