BURIEN - There's something about those Marine Hills swim club sisters, Kenna and Kayla Ramey, and that "something" is spelled s-p-e-e-d-y.

Similar words comes quickly to mind, too, to describe the exemplary efforts of the two 15-18 senior age level 200-yard freestyle relay teams swimmers of MH -- boys and girls -- who both won to cap off a fifth place overall finish for Marine Hills in the Southern Division Seattle Summer Swim League meet at the Gregory Seahurst pool in Burien Thursday.

"That was kind of a nice little close," said Wendy Neely of the relay back-to-back wins. She is the Marine Hills Fish and the Tree coach, even though the name has had attempted changes through the years to the "Sea Monkeys" and the "Marlins."

"It's The Fish and the Tree," she laughed authoritatively.

Kenna is what one would call a "pure swimmer."

At this point in her 10-year-old life, the girl with ravenous, long, dark, hair just plain blacks out her swimming competition in individual events -- theButterfly, breaststroke, backstroke and freestyle. She's just speedier. Kenna's arms move through the water faster than anyone else's when she swims.

Shuh-shuh-shuh-shuh...that's the sound Ramey makes through the water while others go at a shuh, shuh, shuh, shuh, stroke rate. A hyphen denotes a faster pace in a sentence, gramatically speaking, than a comma.

But speed is only part of Kenna. She also has style when she swims speedily.

Kenna took first in the 100-yard individual medley -- all four strokes combined -- in 1:12.87. And Kenna was a full seven seconds faster than anyone else from the area swim clubs composed of Renton to Federal Way to West Seattle -- eight teams in all.

"She has some natural talent as well as her older sister is speedy herself," said Neely, who also coaches the Thomas Jefferson High School swim program. "She (Kenna) is internally motivated. She's intrinsically motivated as well."

Don't ask her big sister, Kayla, questions about her as she will give answers that some will want to hear and some will not want to hear.

Why is your sister so good, Kayla?

"I don't know," said Kayla, seemingly looking like she was not liking the conversation that moved from her good job swimming to her sis's better placing efforts overall.

Kayla is a 14-year-old that took first in the 50 butterfly in 29.34, and, she did also get a fifth place in the 50 breaststroke in 35.31 at Southerns. But Kenna had two firsts to put Kayla in her shadow.

"People call her (Kenna) the freak of nature," said Kayla, laughing a little almost when she said it.

Well, hmmm.

Kenna's arms do move like a butterfly's through the water, no, make that a hummingbird's. Definitely Kenna's arms move faster stroking the water than anyone else's. Just watch and see. That's a little freaky to consider certainly. And, Kenna's legs do seemingly thrash through the water faster than the rest.

Kenna not only set the 100 IM Southerns record this year but she also set the 25 fly record, too, last year and the year before that, also in Southerns. She is under three seconds off the All-City meet record in the 100 IM, which was done in the big northern versus southern division meet after press time Tuesday at the Aqua Club pool in Kenmore.

Well, who else, besides Kenna and Kayla, and let's say, too, quickly, pun intended, that Kenna won the 25 fly too, in 13.97 at Southerns. And she was the leadoff on a second place 200-yard freestyle relay team finishing in 2:11.35 that she got her team out to a monstrous half-length pool lead that evaporated as the race went on.

Who else swam well?

Those two oldest age group relays, that's who.

First it was a lot of cheering by both relay team members, boys and girls, circling and doing cheers, Tommy Cunningham leading the way well like he does in the water individually as well.

"Yeah, let's go," he said, swaggering around in his 6-2, muscular frame after the cheer, jovially laughing with teammates. Hey, if one can walk the talk...

And then came the racing which was good enough to have Marine Hills trample rival Twin Lakes in the end, who had led their MH rival throughout the meet.

In event 71, MH's Amy Davidson, Bren Fejarang, Jenelle Freeborn, Charlene Walton altogether moved the fastest in 1:46.57, beating their nearest Kent rival, 1:47.14. Then, in the final event, it was no contest as MH's Kyle Christensen, Cameron Moak, Eric Ball and Cunningham, breezed to a 1:30.92 win, a full 3.5 seconds ahead of their Normandy Park rival. Those four also teamed to win the 200 yard medley in 1:42.93, edging the TL rival of Lucas Willers, D'Voreax Cann, RJ O'Farrell and Keith Arns in at 1:43.31, less than a half second behind.

For Twin Lakes, it was a good showing for Felicity Cann who did well in the 11-12 girls age group. Cann, 11, took first against older competition. She won the 100 IM in 1:08.18 and the 50 breast in 33.67. So, by rights, put Cann's efforts right up there with Kenna's. The only difference could be that Kenna is a little closer to getting an all city record, three seconds off for Kenna and five seconds off for Felicity, in the 100 IM. And, like Kenna.

Felicity does have an older sister, Scarlett, 16, that swam.

And swam well.

"I won both my events, that's good," said Scarlett.

Teammate Kelly Erickson, 15, also won her events, being that good because she is on the definite lower age of the 15 to 18 scale. She took the 50 breast in 29.25 and the 50 fly in 27.65.

"I dropped time in both," said Erickson.

So besides the lack of success not winning the meet over their rival, individually those three were the catalysts for TL's first-place points.

Those two, Scarlett and Kelly, helped their medley and free relays, with Jill Heydon and Lauren Madeja also on it, taking second and third, respectively.

Felicity also helped TL's 11-12 age group medley and relay teams succeed. Taylor Wintler, Regan Smith, and Tory Snyder were teammates of Cann's on both relays.

Other results included some more sisterly themes -- MH's Leah Freeborn, third, 1:15.78, in the 100 IM, and, fourth, in the 50 breast in 37.98, and, sixth in the 50 fly in 35.33. Her sister, Jenelle, was third in the 100 IM in 1:06.88 and third in 50 fly in 33.74 for 15 and over girls. TL's Kaia Barth was third, in the 100IM and first in the 100 free in 56.29 for 13-14 girls, and, her sister, Eva, was third in the 50 free in 29.76 and fifth in the 100IM in 1:18.59 for 11-12 girls.

MH's Marshall Sweers was fifth in 13-14 boys 50 breast in 35.98. MH's Eric Ball was second in the boys 15 and over 50 breast. MH's Robert Hughes was fourth in the 25 fly in 18.36 and sixth in the 50 breast in 47.47. MH's Brandon Hand was third in the 13-14 age group 50 fly in 29.79 and, fifth, in the 100 IM in 1:11.46.

MH's Kyle Christensen, Ball and Larsen took fourth, fifth, sixth, places in the 100 IM in 59.48, 1:00.88 and 1:02.75.

In relays, MH's foursome of Barth, Kayla Ramey, Carly Bottemiller and Dalynn Wingard took second in the 200 free in 1:49.30. In the 200 medley, Kyle Cassinerio, Joey Larsen, Ryan Bagnell and Mitchell Parker took sixth in the boys 15 and over in 1:51:26.