The fastest swimmers in Montgomery County will converge upon Rockville Swim and Fitness Center for the county’s individual all-star meet Sunday. And per usual, records are on watch entering the weekend’s meet.
[Psych sheet: 2015 MCSL Individual All-Star]
Among the favorites to claim county title’s are record breakers Phoebe Bacon and Brett Feyerick, who have coursed through the league’s records this season with 12 total between the Tallyho duo.
Who will join them? Can this summer’s meet match last year’s seven league records? With many older swimmers opting for Potomac Valley’s senior championships over summer league meets, who will walk away with a 15-18 title?
Here are some of the best storylines to keep an eye on at this year’s meet:
1. Bacon shoots for a ‘Grand Slam’
Tallyho’s Phoebe Bacon will swim freestyle and breaststroke Sunday, the only two 11-12 events in which she doesn’t already hold the league records.
Her first event, the 50-meter freestyle, should be the easier of the two records to capture. Bacon comes in with a seed time of 28.26; Caroline McTaggart’s 2009 record time of 27.88 isn’t out of reach for the Tallyho superstar.
Bacon’s big challenge will come in the 50 breast as she looks to eclipse current Stanford all-American Sarah Haase’s record of 35.07. Bacon hasn’t even approached the record yet this season with a season-best 37.18, but Bacon is an accomplished IMer and that requires a quick breaststroke.
[Caroline McTaggart leads record-setting day in MCSL]
There isn’t a Grand Slam in summer league swimming, but breaking and holding every event record in your age group has to be about as close as a swimmer can get. Bacon has a chance at it.
Bacon won two events last summer as an 11-year-old — the 100 IM and 50 butterfly — in record-breaking time.
Her teammate, Brett Feyerick who has also had six record-breaking swims this summer for the Foxes, will swim free and back Sunday. He has the league records in both, broken most recently in the divisional meet.
2. Two records, one swim
Consistency is rare in young swimmers, but Rockville’s Adriano Ariotti‘s range in the 8&under 25 freestyle stretches across only .34 seconds . . . for the entire season.
Ariotti’s best of 15.38 puts him in good position to take Timothy Ellet‘s MCSL record of 15.16 from 2009. But don’t be surprised if Ariotti goes further, though. Just .1 seconds below the league mark is the all-area record of 15.06, which was set by Johnny Bradshaw in 2012 in the Dominion Country Club League.
Ariotti has the top six all-area times this season in six swims in the event, and lucky number seven could put him over the top.
The 8-year-old is also seeded first in the 25 butterfly with a 16.95, more than a second ahead of second. The all-area and league mark held by Darius Truong is likely too far out of reach for Ariotti at 16.07, however.
3. Big waves, big race
It could be tough to see the winner of the 15-18 boys’ 100 IM Sunday without being right near the action. A dome of white water may cover the top three finishers as they approach the wall together. And we mean together.
Potomac Glen senior Brennan Novak, Upper County’s Brandon Cu and Old Georgetown’s Alex Vissering are seeded within .16 seconds of each other, an absolute toss-up margin for the senior boys’ age group.
Novak is the savvy veteran and a racer, but Cu and Vissering are dangerous in breaststroke. In the end, like so many races Sunday, the winner will be whoever can take the race out fast and times that final lunge to the wall just right. Good luck, boys.
It will be Cu’s second close race of the day, as he enters .02 seconds behind Potomac’s Adrian Lin, and just in front of Cedarbrook’s Andrew Omenitsch, with a time of 52.94.
Other barnburners to keep an eye on:
- 8&under girls’ 25 free: Three-hundredths of a second separate Manchester Farm’s Ruqayyah Abouraya, Stonegate’s Sophia Diaz and Palisades’s Anna Knight, and first through 15th are separated by less than a second.
- 13-14 boys’ 50 free: Stonebridge’s Jeffrey Qin, Potomac Woods’s Aaron Lazar and Cedarbrook’s Nathan Wratney enter with seed times of 25.62, 25.68 and 25.80. Not a lot of room for error.
- 9-10 girls’ 25 back: Nina Allen is the only swimmer seeded under 17 seconds, but Robin Hood’s Riley Langan and Potomac Woods’s Erin Gemmell are both within two-tenths of the Stonegate swimmer.
4. Ellett with a shot
When Eli Fouts rocked a 1:00.89 in the 13-14 boys’ 100 individual medley at last year’s all-stars, it was presumed that the record might last awhile. Tilden Woods’ Timothy Ellet is of a different opinion, however.
Ellett, 14, enters as the top seed in the league with a 1:01.41, just over half a second off the league record. The time ranks fourth all-time in the area and third all-time in the league, trailing Fouts and Jack Conger. The all-area mark stands at 1:00.29, set in 2011 by Andrew Seliskar.
5. Events with potential
Beyond the senior age groups, it’s a rarity to see too many swimmers from the bottom of the age group on top. But the 13-14 girls’ age group has just that — in three different events.
In 100 individual medley, top-seeded Talia Moss from River Falls, No. 3 seed Madeline Mara from Lakelands and No.5 seed Moshelle Borjigin from Germantown are all 13. The rest of the 12, age 14.
East Gate’s Maya Fischer tops the entries in 50 butterfly, followed by five 14-year-olds, then Amanda Liu of Bethesda and Manchester Farm’s Sarah Elliott in seventh and eight.
Liu is entered at No. 1 in 50 backstroke, followed by three 14-year-olds, then three more 13-year-olds — Abbey Rose of Tanterra, Potomac Woods’s Megan Sharkey and Stonegate’s Shannon Lamb.
The age group’s freestyle and breaststroke event also has some underaged talent as well, with Fischer, Sharkey, Rock Creek’s Tatum Zupnik and Tenterra’s Amanda Wenhold seeded second and fourth through fifth, respectively, in freestyle, and Mara, Potomac Woods’s Caroline Howley and Elliott seeded third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in breast.
6. Vissering’s last stand
Carsten Vissering is among the few top-tier swimmers in the 15-18 age group to enter the all-star meet, along with Novak and Lin.
The Old Georgetown swimmer is back from a stint with the U.S. national “C” team at the World University Games, where he finaled in the 50 breaststroke for the United States. He’s back for a stretch before heading to San Antonio for U.S. nationals and then off to sunny Southern California for college. Novak, a Harvard-bound graduate, and Lin, a Yale recruit, will also join the college swimming ranks this fall.
Vissering said at last year’s meet that he thought it would be his last all-stars, but he’s back again for the 100 breaststroke and 50 butterfly, neither of which he enters as the top seed.
Can he get under again?
If he does, he’ll have to get back top seed Coby Zucker, a Columbia recruit who has swam well this season, including a league-topping 1:04.95. Vissering’s top time this season is 1:05.01.
In fly, he’s the third seed with a 26.89, trailing leaders Tom Benson (26.27) and Kevin Berry (26.32) in what should be another thrilling finish.
7. Two more for the books? Maybe.
If you can stick around through breaststroke, you might be treated to a couple of late-breaking records in the butterfly events.
Damascus’s Carly Sebring broke the league record in the 9-10 girls’ butterfly in Week 5, dipping under 15 seconds for the first time. She now sits within .03 seconds of Cassidy Bayer’s all-area mark of 14.74.
Just before Sebring’s swim, Germantown’s Konnor Chen also can take aim at the all area mark in the boys’ butterfly.
He is seeded with a 14.94, which he posted in divisionals for a new league record. Johnny Bradshaw’s all-area mark sits at 14.36.
Both swimmers had their season-bests in the last two weeks, and even though Sebring missed during divisionals, she was still a blistering 15.02. She’s hit within three-tenths of Bayer’s record three times this season.
