Normandy Park swam to another victory amongst local swim clubs, soaking up the water in the sun at the grandest of all Seattle Summer Swim League meets - All City - held at the Kent Swim and Tennis Club pool Aug. 5.

Kent won All-City this year, blowing away the competition in their head coach's final year. Second was Aqua Club, way back, with 242, and third was Wedgwood with 190.5.

NP tied Innis Arden with 168 points. IA is a Northern Division club from the North Seattle area as are Aqua Club and Wedgwood. There are 16 clubs in all, so finishing fourth is pretty good.

For the other local swim club teams, NP's rival, Olympic View, finished 11th and Gregory Seahurst of the Burien area 15th. Nearby Arbor Heights, a White Center based swim club, took eighth.

A lot of good points for NP being able to finish fourth place came from swimmers Sam Johnson, Jeff Kasahara, Alyx Hastings and Eric Reiff. They altogether took second in the 9-10 boys 100 medley relay in 1:10.62, about a half second slower than the winner, Wedgwood, a North Seattle swim club finishing in 1:10.03. Then, in the 100 free, those same four NP'ers won in 2:11.65, a full second ahead of the same four Wedgwood swimmers they lost to in the medley relay.

Dedication carries these four to relay greatness, too, as the two youngest, Johnson and Hastings, were with the 8 & under All City champs last year while Kasahara and Reiff were on the winning 9-10 team at All-City last year.

"Grant Meyers and Andrew Brotherton help us," said Reiff, the oldest member of this team who just turned 11.

"They are really fast. Grant is the fastest 12 and under besides Chase," said Reiff.

Meyers is only 11, an "off" year for him going against older swimmers, so NP may have two "Phelps" coming through the ranks in the future. (Watch the Summer Olympics swim portion, on NBC TV now, to find out who Phelps is.)

"And they give us a lot of tips," said Kasahara of the coaching help of Meyers and Brotherton.

These four really know what it takes to be good at what they do. Sure, parents help these four speedsters, and peers like Meyers, who took third in the 50 backstroke and fifth in the 50 free at All-City in 11-12 age group, help.

But who else helps them?

They help themselves by being disciplined.

"We don't eat like donuts and everything," said Reiff. "That would be a treat."

"I eat healthy," said Hastings, listening, and adding, "I'm on two swim teams. Summer I am here and winter I'm on Whitewater Aquatics (select club team)."

What else don't they do to do what they do so well in the water?

"I don't sleep in," said Kasahara. "I could be laying outside."

Being lazy?

"Yeah," said Kasahara.

And what they do and have done for the past year or two at least is swim, swim, swim.

"Every day except the weekend," said Kasahara. "Every practice we are almost all there."

What else?

"We also stretch before our races," said Kasahara.

"We all wear caps," said Johnson. "I think they make us go faster."

Said Kasahara, continuing this free flow of conversation telling of the success of these relay members: "It's also good to wear tight swim suits. Loose ones drag in the water and make you slower."

All agree?

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Johnson, Hastings and Reiff.

Yes, this foursome was fearsome to get their team points individually. Hastings won the 9-10 25-yard butterfly and Kasahara was fourth in the 50-yard breast and the same place, fourth, in the 100 yard IM and Johnson was third in the 50 back and Reiff sixth in the 50 free. So that's a good number of points for their team right there from that group.

What about that free race? As a team, what helped you beat that Wedgwood team, in the free relay, that beat you in the medley?

"We encouraged each other before this race," said Reiff. "And we gave it our all."

"We went as fast as we could," said Hastings.

And they won. Their first and second place relay finishes were a better 1-2 punch of finishes in that "relay" category than anyone else.

Individually, it was 12-year-old Chase Onstot doing things in the water better than anyone else, taking three first places for Olympic View. He is truly a "fish" in the water. Haley Ballast, his coach, said something after last week at Southerns, the meet where the top six times get compared with the Northern Division's top six times and 12 is weeded down to six, who all move on to All City.

"Yeah, he's amazing," was what Ballast said.

And nothing changed there. When Onstot gets in the water, the pool becomes his water world.

And, not done naming the fastest yet, Reva Zacharias, 10, came out of a good Southern Meet performance July 30 of two firsts in the 50 yard freestyle and 100 individual medley by, at All City, blowing away the competition in the 50 free, beating her nearest Wedgwood competitor by nearly a second and a half, 30.02 to 31.50.

Zacharias just barely won the 100 IM, 1:17.31 to 1:17.89, but a first is a first is a first. And she got one other place. A second in the 100 backstroke.

Zacharias lost that one by six hundredths of a second to a Blue Ridge swimmer's, 34.28. Zacharias had a 36.34, the closest finish of a girl swimmer of All City time-wise.

"She does the little things," said Mica Bailey, her coach along with Melissa Lowe. "She attacks the wall, has strong kick outs, controls her breathing, and has beautiful strokes. She's on the right path for big things to come."

For her second place, Zacharias simply said, "If I work on it, I can get better."

For the rest of her swimming conversation, she just emphasized the fact that starting at a young age has helped her a lot as well as her coaches.

"I started when I was six," said Zacharias. "I do Whitewater Aquatics (year-round club swimming)."

Race results:

50 free - Ryan Gansneder, OV, fifth in 25.88 for boys 13-14; Haley Gansneder, OV, fourth in 25.99 for girls 15-18.

100 IM - Jeff Kasahara, NP, fourth in 1:25.32 for boys 9-10; Chase Onstot, OV, first, in 1:03.73 for boys 11-12; Kayleigh Hanrahan, NP, third in 1:04.77 for girls 13-14 100 IM; Sascha Stipe, NP, second in 1:04.99 in boys 13-14 100 IM - Molly Larson, GS, sixth in 1:05.52 in girls 15-18,

25 free - Emily Zacharias, GS, third, in 16.18, in girls 8 & Under;

50 free - Reva Zacharias, GS, first, in 30.02 and Angela Galiardo, GS, third, in 31.83 in girls 9-10; Chase Onstot, OV, first, in 25.04 and Grant Meyers, NP, fifth in 28.81 in boys 11-12.

100 free - Stephanie Reusch, sixth in 1:00.22 in girls 13-14, Sascha Stipe, third, NP, in 56.18 and Jon Graybill, OV, 56.27 in 13-14 boys, Emily Fenster, NP, fifth, in 55.87 in girls 15-18.

25 back - Alicia Reiff, NP, sixth, in 21.34, Teddy Covich, NP, fourth in 22.37, and Anders Hunt, NP, fifth, in 22.55.

50 back - Reva Zacharias, GS, second, in 36.34 in girls 9-10; Sam Johnson, NP, third, in 39.75; Megan Kawaguchi, NP, second, in 31.59; Chase Onstot, OV, first, in 28.82 and Grant Meyers, NP, fourth in 33.76 and Ean VanBramer, OV, sixth, in 35.06 in boys 11-12; Courtney Larson, GS, fifth, in 30.70 in girls 13-14 50 yard back; Karl Fenster, NP, first, in 29.06 and Jon Graybill, OV, third, in 30.76; Emily Fenster, NP, second, in 29.37 and Molly Larson, GS, third, in 29.77.

25 breast - Lucien Gauvin, NP, fourth, in 22.71, and William Loughlin, fifth, in 22.99.

50 breast - Jeff Kasahara, NP, fourth, in 42.91 in boys 9-10; Anna Burdine, NP, sixth, in 36.94 in girls 11-12; Kayleigh Hanrahan, NP, first, 32.71 and Sonny Dorhofer, OV, fourth, in 34.57 and Ryan Gansneder, OV, third, in 33.6.

25 fly - Afton Widdershins, OV, second in 15.34 in girls 9-10; Alyx Hastings, NP, first, in 15.56 in boys 9-10.

50 fly - Grant Meyers, NP, third, in 32.19 in boys 11-12; Stephanie Reusch, NP, sixth, in 30.78 in girls 13-14; Ryan Gansneder, OV, third in 28.09 in boys 13-14; Greg Giesbers, GS, fifth, in 26.07 in boys 15-18.

100 Medley relay - Camilla Maudslien, Karianne Bolma, Alicia Reiff, Terry Madeline, NP, sixth in 1:25.54 in girls 8 & Under; Jack Fennster, Lucien Gauvin, Anders Hunt, William Loughlin, first in 1:24.44 in boys 8 & Under; Erin Ronald, Emily Marchel, Afton Widdershins, Lena Osterberg, OV, first, in 1:08.81; Sam Johnson, Jeff Kasahara, Alyx Hastings, Eric Reiff, second in 1:10.62 in boys 9-10.

200 medley relay - Megan Kawaguchi, Anna Burdine, Natalie Mutter, Sophia Cassam, NP, third, in 2:10.54 in girls 11-12; Kelsey Hastings, Kayleigh Hanrahan, Stephanie Reusch, Blake Henley, NP, fifth in 2:05.24; Karl Fenster, Zach Williams, Sascha Stipe, Jacob Mutter, NP, second in 1:57.65.

100 free relay - Madeline Kemp, Madeline Terry, Alicia Reiff, Camilla Maudslien, NP, fourth in 1:12.66 in girls 8 & Under; Cal Hansen, Charles Elleby, Jess Olmstead, Riley Duvall, OV, third in 1:12.27; Anders Hunt, Teddy Covich, William Loughlin, Jack Fenster, NP, fifth in 1:14.07;

200 free relay - Alyx Hastings, Jeff Kasahara, Sam Johnson, Eric Reiff, NP, first in 2:11.65; Sophia Cassam, Anna Burdine, Natalie Mutter, Megan Kawaguchi, NP, fourth in 1:59.51; Ean Van Bramer, Riley McCoy, Ryan Alfrejd, Chase Onstot, OV, fifth in 2:00.74; Stephanie Reusch, Blake Henley, Kelsey Hastings, Kayleigh Hanrahan, NP, fifth in 1:52.53, Zach Williams, Karl Fenster, Jacob Mutter, Sascha Stipe, NP, fifth in 1:47.93.