Carlos Omana was 5 years old when his parents signed him up for swimming lessons at the Metro Aquatic Club of Miami.

``It first started because I had asthma, and my doctor recommended it,'' Omana said Wednesday. ``The more I did it, the more I liked it.''

Andy Vazquez ended up in the same pool with Omana for another scary reason.

``When I was 8, we had a baseball pool party at my house, and I started drowning,'' Vazquez said. ``My dad jumped in and saved me. Two weeks later, I was taking classes. I wouldn't be in swimming if I hadn't almost drowned.''

On Thursday at the state's Class 2A swimming and diving finals, Omana and Vazquez, now 16-year old juniors, won't be gasping for air or reaching for help. They will be racing through the water at the Central Florida YMCA Aquatic Center, trying to lead Belen Jesuit to a fourth consecutive state championship.

They could double up on individual gold medals, lead all three Belen relay teams to titles and help the Wolverines match a historic swimming feat in Miami-Dade County. Only Miami Beach's girls (from 1937 to 1940) and Jackson's boys, who won four titles in a row from 1960-63 behind former University of Miami coach Bill Diaz, have dominated like that.

Despite being favored, Belen coach Kirk Peppas, who swam for Diaz at UM, isn't making room in his trophy case yet.

``We don't know what's in store for us, really, because a few teams -- like Fort Myers -- moved down to Class 2A from Class 3A in the last year,'' Peppas said. ``You want to have fast morning swims to take pressure off the evening. That means you get into the top eight and score points.''

Nobody figures to score more points for the Wolverines than Omana and Vazquez, who have the fastest individual times in their respect events. Vazquez (1:41.93) swam a time of 1 minute, 41.93 seconds in the 200-yard freestyle and finished the 100-yard butterfly in 50.75 seconds.

Omana comes in more than five seconds faster than any swimmer in the 200 IM (1:51.25), an event he won last year. Omana also has All-American and state-best times of 4:32.81 in the 500-yard freestyle.

``They're the two horses, and I know they want to come through big,'' Peppas said. ``They know somebody could be out there lurking, trying to take it from them. They have to come in, shave their heads, shave their bodies and swim their best.''

Said Omana: ``We're a family. Winning state for a fourth time in a row would be so sick.

``It would be amazing.''

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