The Southern Division Championships came and went, but not without a lot of water-aided fanfare of excellence from both the Marine Hills Fish and the Tree and the Twin Lakes’ Penguins Seattle Summer Swim League teams at the Lakeridge Pool water in Renton Thursday.

So many swimmers from both area clubs swam well.

“Best times for everyone,” said Penguins coach Lucas Willers. “Everyone dropping time, a second, a second and a half.”

And from Fish and the Tree coach, Wendy Neely, came the same.

“Everyone stepped into their greatness,” said Neely. “Four kids on the relays literally had best times altogether as a group and that will take you to the next step.”

Last year, in this same Southern meet, Marine Hills took fifth place, so, when the fourth place team was announced as “Marine Hills,” it was improvement in more than just individual swims.

Especially when one considers how many meets that Marine Hills won in the regular SSSL season -- one. Only against rival Twin Lakes, who finished seventh in this Southerns Meet.

“When you get seventh in league and fourth at the very end, it is not to be expected,” said Neely.

There were a lot of good times from the old and new 15 & Over division. Speedster Tommy Cunningham showed leadership for the last time in Southerns, since he just graduated from Decatur High School and will now go on to the University of Washington to learn and to swim. He showed his notable speed, too, taking first in the 50 yard freestyle in 22.57 and first in the 100 free, in 48.20, a significant drop in time there from his previous best 49.25. Cunningham, a UW scholarship swim athlete freshman-to-be, also helped his 200 medley and free relays to firsts.

All that hard work paid off for Cunningham, who said after his team beat rival Twin Lakes in the two’s dual meet during the season: “I never expected to be this good and go this far in swimming.”

But swimming has been good for Cunningham, since he first began swimming for the Marine Hills summer swim league team around the ripe old age of 10. Swimming can take you places,

Cunningham’s testimony is here to say. It’s a great sport, with swim teams all across the state at colleges and universities here, not to mention everywhere.

“Swimmers have the highest g.p.a. of any sport,” said Steve Freeborn, who is involved with swimming for big meets, like Masters events at the King County Aquatic Center, and swims himself, along with his daughters, Leah and Jenelle, who are both doing good things for the Marine Hills team.

“You have to be extremely dedicated with the schedules and hours of swimming.”

Cunningham, to put things in perspective, swims for the year-round swim club, King Aquatics, putting in 5-6 hours, not in just a week, but in just a day to have become a top 4A state swimmer now going on to the prestigious UW swim program.

But, from the oldest big winner and congrats to Cunningham, not to mention his relay company —Kyle Christensen, Randy Hentges and Cameron Moak—to collectively get their team a lot of points to help the Marine Hills team finish higher than they would have without that powerful consortium-to the youngest big winner for MH, a ‘kiddy,’ is the attention turned to next.

Carter Blunden, 8, swam very well, picking up points for his Fish and the Tree team in the 8 & Under, with first place finishes in the 25 freestyle and the 25 butterfly. Not bad for a swimmer only in his first year of full competition.

Blunden only lost one race this season, too, he said, saying he and Twin Lakes’ rival Isaac Sato race against each other in a lot of races all summer swim league dual meet season that started in June, ending the first week of August at All City.

“I was undefeated until the last race. Isaac beat me,” said Blunden.

Blunden took that loss in stride to help him better himself next time around against his chief competition in the 25 free.

“I started to pull extra hard off the blocks,” said Blunden, who swam a 16.62 to Sato’s 16.40 in prelims before beating Sato’s time, 15.50 to 16.03, respectively, in the final.

Blunden also took second place in the Boys 8 & Under 50 breaststoke, leading throughout the race but losing a little steam in the end of a 22.15 time to the Lakeridge swim winner’s, 21.25.

But Blunden knew where he was going next and he knew that he would have another chance to win that defeat back.

Where to next?

“All City,’ said Blunden. His mom, Abby, was standing nearby.

Why are you excited about going there?

“Cuz I get to be one of the fast swimmers,” said Blunden.

Who will you be swimming against next?

“All the teams that I swam against here,” said Blunden, with his mom leaning down to whisper in Blunden’s ear. “Oh, and the North.”

The North. That is what the SSSL all comes down to. That location happened August 5, as the top six qualifiers for each event of the combined best times from the Northern and Southern Division Championships met head-to-head at All-City.

Kids really do want to make that. Steve Freeborn’s youngest, Leah, 12, came up to her dad after her races and said, “Do I have a chance of going (to All City).”

“I don’t know,” he said, grimacing a little, trying to remain positive with hope despite not knowing just how fast the Northern Division swimmers compared in their meet times. “Now you have to hope and pray.”

Blunden is the future for Marine Hills, which gave up a lot of points this year in meets to explain their losses because of not enough swimmers in some age groups. Freeborn and Neely noted that the team gave up a lot of points in meets this past summer swim league season because of not enough kids swimming in some of the age groups. In some cases, no kids were in some age groups points per meet.

But with Blunden and little swimmers like eight-year old Jillian Ory and ix-year old Breanna Ross that Neely mentioned having done ‘good individually,’ when asked ‘who is the future?’, the future looks good for The Fish and the Tree team. Ross took fourth in the 25 yard backstroke and Ory, fifth, both dropping times close to a half second in that short yardage event.

“It’s exciting to see some young kids be in championship meets,” said Neely. “They are the future of our team.”

That future looked pretty good for Marine Hills. Other young upcoming swimmers, who are a little older, include 11-year-old Kenna Ramey. Again, she blurred through the water, winning the 50 free and 50 fly, as she, too, was strong at all-city in events last year at the top of her 9-10 age class. Now, she’s 11 and she’s beating the 12 year olds. So, she really is not upcoming as much as already came. She’s a star in the water.

Twin Lakes’ Scarlett Cann holds good star power for her team, like her brother, D’Voreax, who won the 50 back despite being one of the younger competitiors in his 15 & Over boys division. But Scarlett, in the 15 & Over girls 100 free had a good time in it, literally and figuratively, winning it in 53.68, a full second and a half ahead of her nearest competitor, touching the wall in 55.12.

But this was a tough meet for Cann too.

“Definitely in the breaststroke,” said Cann, who took third, not having her best race, not doing better in time from prelims, 33.00 to final, 32.91.

Her brother, D’Voreax, 16, won the 50 backstroke in 26.75, just over Arbor Heights’ second-place finher an 18-year-old who finished in 26.88.