The first last year shall be first this year...and the year before.

It’s loud and clear and quite painful to the competition, too, as the Kennedy Lancers three-peat as 3A state champs, stinging the competition yet again in the first race and the last -- plus a lot of races in between, getting in the girls WIAA swimming and diving championships at the Weyerhausser King County Aquatic Center pool in Federal Way Saturday, Nov. 15.

“It was every bit as much fun as last year, for different reasons,” said Lancers coach Marc Stock. “Because of two world class swimmers, it was so much fun watching Leona (Jennings) and Lindsay (Marchand) swim.”

What about your girls?

“My girls swam phenomenal,” said Stock. His girls won the first race, the 200-yard medley relay, for the fourth year in a row, and also the last race, the 400 free relay, for the third year straight.

True on both accounts of Stock’s 2008 state memories, for the Mount Rainier Rams’ Jennings swam a fastest swim ever recorded in the Washington state swimming history books for her anchor leg of the girls’ 400 yard freestyle relay -- 9.04. Jennings ls back to start her leg to try and catch the one team’s anchor swimmer in front of her.

And who was in front of her?

Kennedy’s Allie Vetterlein. Allie, along with sister Nikki, who swam the third leg in the 400 free relay, both helped Kennedy emerge as a premier high school girls swim team their years -- helping the Lancers win the team titles of late but also, in the years before this year and last, helping their Lancer girls team get top four finishes as sophomores and freshmen.

The outcome of the meet was not in doubt by this the 12th event -- it would be Kennedy. But, still, here was a great race to end things and Jennings jumping off the block for her 400 free leg around three seconds after Allie Vetterlein. All in the stands and on the pool floor were watching, in amazement, as Jennings’ blurred strokes through the water were catching up to Vetterlein’s also smooth movement, just not as fast stroke compared to stroke. It was to a point where Jennings caught up even and the two were stroke for stroke going the final 25 meters. And then Vetterlein’s energy at the very, very end, pulled her away to win, 3:32.41 to 3:32.70.

“I was not going to lose,” said Allie Vetterlein, who swam her leg in 52.48. And, how fast was her swim? Fast enough to have won the state title in the 100 free final if it could have. “It was nerve-wracking. I could not have held her (Jennings) off without the lead. It was karma. We got second at districts.”

This win by the Lancers showed that even with the whole team competition already wrapped up by the final 400 free relay event that the Lancers were going to go out completely beating up the other teams.

“Who would want to win state without winning the last event,” said Nikki.

Win it with a voracious appetite of victory, winning both relays but, besides that, having no other first place winners for Kennedy in individual events at state speaks volumes of how deep this Kennedy team was in slurping up so many seconds, thirds, fourths and even eighths and ninths, that all added up to the most points at state.

Like their red T-shirts on their backs read, “We’re still hungry...so we’re coming back for more.”

Senior captains Allie Vetterlein, Nikki Vetterlein and Brittany Millerr came up with the vicious theme statement for this year’s team that swims next to all the other teams at state walking around with T-shirts with different motivational phrases on them.

Not only did the Lancers swim sweetly in the final race for an exclamation point, but they swam open-mouthed to start state’s finals events, too, winning the 200 medley relay in another breaking of the state meet record..

That one, with the Vetterlein twins as well as freshman Gabby Lindblad and sophomore Mariah Crockett, finished in 1:47.88. In the other one, the 400 free, it was sophomore Amanda Thach and junior Emily Fenster winning.

So what a great win for the Lancers to end things, as Thach aptly said, “We went out with a bang. We wanted everyone to remember this.”

No one anytime soon will forget the great comeback swim of Jennings to try and catch Allie Vetterlein and Vetterlein’s response the final 25 yards to pull ahead and hold her off by 29 hundredths of a second.

But Jennings was unbelievable in the water this season as she swam high school swimming at the very highest level for just her first season, which is her last since she is a senior. She wanted to concentrate on the Olympics the past three years as to why she did not swim before her senior year. And so she goes out with a bang as she was no doubt the biggest one to watch in this state bonanza -- two state records in her 100 back (53,66) and 50 free (20.92) events. Marchand did well too, but she did not swim the fastest 100 free on record like Jennings. Marchand, from Peninsula High School, did get two state titles, as to note why Stock was right saying she was world class.

She’s had a lot of good swimming behind her and already went to Nebraska to compete in the Olympic trials, where she took ninth in the U.S.A. in the 100 back. She will be back there again undoubtedly. In the meantime, she will venture to the University of Washington on a swimming scholarship.

“I’m happy,” said Jennings. “My best races are ahead of me.”

Omar Crowder, Jennings’ coach, knew what to say when it was pointed out that Jennings’ 400 free swim make up of distance was amazing.

“Absolutely,” he said.

Highline’s Beth Cate has done great in her four years swimming, making state every year. Her sophomore year she was second in the 200 free and third in the 500 free. Then as a junior she was second in the 100 butterfly and second in the 200 Individual Medley. Now, in her last hurrah, another good couple swims, third in the 200 free and fourth in the 100 back.

Cate has had fun with her team and her coach, Robin Hoof.

“I love Robin,” said Cate. “I am going to miss her. She is very motivational, and is a really good coach.”

About Jennings, Cate, a friend of hers, said, “She’s the nicest person you will ever meet. She is not cocky at all. Leona is my hero.”

So the Vetterleins are gone now.

“We hope to carry it on,” said Mariah Crockett, who helped out on the 200 medley winning relay and also gave her team good points of depth, getting eighth in both the 50 and 100 free.

But in losing of the Vetterleins this team will stay strong with Mariah and her sister Hannah, who took third in the consolation finals of the 100 butterfly.

Because, in high school girls swimming before two years ago, it was Bellevue starting back in 1999, then Bainbridge in 2000 and 2001, then Bellevue, then Bainbridge again in 2003 and 2004, and then Bellevue in 2005 and then three titles for Kennedy.

They also had great diving efforts from freshman Paige Greeley, who took fourth place with 303.95 and Charlotte Dittmar, also a freshman, that took 14th with 233.05.

Diving was a nice boost of 18 points for the Lancers as that and the middle competition events really put them over the top. The Lancers were second after the first four events. Mercer Island had 103 and they were 85. Then after the diving and 100 back and 500 free the Lancers were first with 204 points. Second place was 143 points.

The Mount Rainier Rams did well, too, with Molly Larson, Haley Gansneder and Mackenzie Marrs swimming well at state in relays and individually. Marrs took sixth in the 200 Individual Medley, which requires all four strokes in 2:14.55 as Allie Vetterlein was second in 2:07.65.

Gansneder was sixth in the 500 free in 5:10, and the Rams got a first place in the 200 free relay as Gansneder, Marrs, Larson, and Jennings went a 1:38.26 to edge Juanita’s 1:38.58, for All America Consideration. All of the first place swims from the relays of the Lancers and Rams were Automatic All American times.

Some other good times were from Kennedy all across the board, including Annie Benoit, who was seventh in consolation finals, in 2:01.26, as a freshman. Fenster was fourth in 1:54.26 in the same 200 free race. Nikki Vetterlein was third in the 100 back in 57.74 and teammate Thach second in 57.57. Mariah Crockett was second, 10th overall, in the consolation final of the 100 free in 54.92. Lindblad was eighth in the 500 free final in 5:14.78.