sports CORRESPONDENT

Some good swims all over the place for Marine Hills and Twin Lakes summer swim league teams, but the most impressive of it all team-wise was the relay foursome of Kayla Ramey, Kaia Barth, Amber Cratsenberg and Savannah Coe. who broke two all-city records for 12 and under girls at the Blueridge pool in Ballard Tuesday.

They won the medley and free relays, but Fish and the Tree coach Suzanne Rychlik noted which of the two was most notable.

"The 11 and 12 girls are very strong," said Rychlik. "They won the free relay in 1:49.81, so they beat the all-city record by a second in that one. The medley relay was by not as much. They beat it by 12/100ths of a second. But that is a really impressive relay win. The medley time is more impressive as far as times go. Getting girls to go that fast into doing different strokes is more impressive than the free time."

The girls were impressed with themselves, finally getting the figurative monkey off their backs.

"We have lost to this Aqua Club team when we were 10 and under and 8 and under," said Ramey. "We just had so much pressure that we all dropped time. We had broke the record in prelims and then they broke it in northerns.

The third time was the charm. They beat Aqua Club after two losses at younger age groups and they set the record straight for who would have the fastest time for the 2005 season by winning the last meet of the summer swim league season, all-city.

So, two relays for these young ladies and two firsts. No one else did what they did the whole meet, that is broke two all-city records in two relays.

"We are going to start preparing for next year," Ramey said.

Another relay top team was the 14 and under girls relay that took third in the medley and first in the free relay and also broke that free record all-city record in their age group by a half second, getting a 1:45.5.

Briley Boggs, one of the four, with the others being Eryn Murphy, Danielle Alger and Scarlett Cann, predicted that her team would do well when she said earlier in the meet after an interview of an individual race win of hers in the 50 butterfly, "You should watch our free relay, we are going to go for the record in that one", she said.

And, they went for it.

"And we got it," said Boggs, excitedly.

Murphy was thinking the same thing as Boggs.

"We are really close to the record, we are going to get the record," she said.

And they got it.

Boggs also got the victory in the girls 14 and under 50 fly for Twin Lakes. It was close between her and a friend rival from her year-round swim team, Nikki Vetterlein, from King Aquatics.

"It was close, very close," said Boggs. "I was just happy I touched the wall first. We are always close."

All-city is a lot different from Boggs' much more competitive year-round club at King. But that is all OK with her.

"All-city is a lot of fun," said Boggs. "There are more people to cheer you on. You want to beat the person next to you. It's just really great."

Scarlett Cann is another Penguin from Twin Lakes that had a banner meet individually. She took first in the 100 free though seeded second. She did more than just win, she broke the Twin Lakes pool record. She went a 55 and the record was 56.3. She also was seeded third in the breaststroke and took second, another best time for her although not a TL pool record.

"I just went out and tried my best," said Cann. "It feels good to be winning."

Kenna Ramey, Kayla's little eight-year-old sister, did the best she could and won, just barely, in a thriller of the 8 and under 25 yard freestyle 14.64 to second's 14.82.

Kenna knew what it made her do when she saw the second-place swimmer at the end.

"Made me want to go faster," she said.

Her dad, Dave, watched his daughter and explained afterward why Kenna won.

"That other girl took a breath," he said.

Did Kenna want to take a breath?

"Nah, she always goes without taking a breath," he said.

Kenna likes swimming and did well and she can attribute that to her sister.

"I help her," said Kayla, who herself had a banner day at all-city, being on the 11-12 relay team that broke the all-city record as previously explained.

"She is dedicated to it," said Dave Ramey. "Her older sister was in there and Kenna tries to keep up with her."

Kenna enjoys the water and has learned a lot from many people, her dad, sister, and, who else? Her coach, Suzanne Ryclik.

"She has worked with me a lot," said Kenna.

Seamus Alger is one other to note, he won the 100 free in 47.66 for an all-city record and was trying to get another first in the 50 fly. He was not aware but Peter Larsen was really wanting that race. All city this time around is Larsen's last year and he could be heard after southerns saying, "Seamus doesn't have anything to lose, but I do."

Larsen in fact thought he had beat Alger at southerns in the 50 fly but then the results came out and Alger beat him by less than a quarter of a second.

Larsen and Alger went at it in the all city 50 fly final and both were flying through the water with albatross strokes and Larsen won, 24.30, to 24.31. Doesn't get any closer than that?

"Peter had a good swim in the fly," said Rychlik. "He went out on a good note, an impressive win."