Ever since he started swimming at age four, Redmond resident Zach Alleva favored a certain stroke.

“Since I’ve been a little kid I’ve always done the breaststroke,” said Alleva, a junior at The Bear Creek School in Redmond who swims for Eastlake High in Sammamish. “Even when I was 4 or 5, when we’d go to my grandparents’ pool, I’d kick like the breaststroke and just swim that. It’s what I’ve always done.”

In grade school, his mom, Holly, forced Alleva and his brother to swim for a summer league team, and then the WAVE Aquatics swim club, amid their protests.

As it turned out, mother knew best.

Little did Alleva know that 12 years after he started kicking around in the family pool, he would go on to win the Class 4A state breaststroke championship.

On Saturday, Feb. 19, Alleva swam the 100-yard finals in a personal-best 58.07 seconds, outlasting Kamiak sophomore Liam Sosinsky (58.35) and Garfield senior Andrew Nemeth (58.73) down the stretch.

“I just wanted to win, and get higher on the podium,” said Alleva, who placed seventh last year and 15th as a freshman in the event. “No one really remembers who gets seventh, and I like winning.”

The race was a tight one, as Alleva sprinted out to an early lead, making his halfway touch in 27.25 seconds, about three-tenths faster than Sosinsky.

Out of the corner of his goggles, Alleva knew he was leading and just had to out-touch them at the wall.

“During the two turns, that’s the only time you can really see if you’re ahead,” Alleva explained. “I have a problem with getting tired (down the stretch), so I just had to make sure they didn’t catch me.”

Pouring it on the last 25 yards, Alleva finished with an identical split time as Sosinsky, 30.82, in the last 50 yards, and it finally hit him when he looked up at the giant scoreboard and saw the results.

“I was really happy,” he said of his initial reaction. “It’s been a dream of mine to win state, and I had some friends there from Bear Creek. It was really cool.”

Watching from the sidelines, his Eastlake swim coach, Kate McCary, was ecstatic to see Alleva earn his first state title.

“Total excitement and happiness,” said McCary on what she felt when Zach touched the wall first. “I knew Zach was capable of winning the finals, but it was definitely going to be a great race considering his competition. He did exactly what he needed to do to win.”

With a state title in his back pocket, Alleva is far from finished this season.

He will be heading to Orlando in two weeks for the Junior Nationals, and this summer he will return to the prestigious Speedo Junior National Championships at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. from Aug. 8-12.

But the impressive-looking junior has even bigger sights set for his swimming future.

“My goal next year is to try and qualify for the Olympic Trials,” Alleva said. “It’ll be really tough to do. And I want to swim in college.”

While it can be difficult to swim on a team for a school one doesn’t attend, Alleva noted that the Wolves’ swimming community welcomed him with open arms.

“It let me meet some new kids, people I never would have met before, and it’s great fun,” he said, adding that he was former WAVE teammates with standout freshman Edward Kim, who won two state titles. “I’ve known Edward for a long time. He moved to Bellevue Club four years ago, maybe five.”

Ever since Alleva joined the team as a freshman, McCary has lauded his work ethic. She noted that Alleva has been voted team captain next season for his motivational leadership, hard work and dedication.

“Zach is very dedicated to the sport,” she said. “It is obvious that he loves swimming, as he spends hours in the pool everyday, going to club practice after our high school practice.”

Finally, Alleva was sure to give a shout out to his swim coach at WAVE, Tyson Wellock, as well as everyone on the Eastlake swim team, who he says are “fun, supportive guys.”

Looking back on his younger days, and the long, arduous path he took to get to the top of his sport, he saved the most important recognition of thanks for last.

“My family, and my mom,” Alleva said. “For making me do swimming.”