Rebekah Wilcox still was shaking with excitement 10 minutes after finding out her Sprague High School girls swim team had upset West Salem 91-79 Thursday evening at the Kroc Center.
It was the first time in her six years as head coach at Sprague that her team had completed a sweep of perennial league powers West Salem, South Salem and McNary in the same season.
She was, as could be expected, ecstatic with her team improving to 3-0 in Central Valley Conference dual meets.
"You couldn't tell by the jumping around," Wilcox joked.
West Salem's boys, meanwhile, continued their undefeated league season with a 127-39 win against Sprague.
Heather Williams (200 free), Kate Matthews (50 free), Evette Dow (500 free) and Sprague's 200 and 400 free relay teams that included Hannah and Heather Williams, Matthews, Dow and Sage Freeburg won for Sprague's girls.
What was key for Sprague, though, was the Olympians' depth in ensuring the defeat of the two-time defending CVC champion Titans.
"I knew it was going to be a challenge, but I really felt like we had an opportunity to do well tonight, and we obviously did," Wilcox said.
West Salem had wins by Maria Wetzel (200 IM and 100 back), Alicia Phan (100 fly), Mackenzie Rumrill (100 free and 100 breast) and the 200 medley relay team of Rumrill, Rasmusson, Wetzel and Hannah Carey.
One of the key races of the night pitted Rumrill against Matthews in the 100 breaststroke.
The two were head-to-head for most of the race, but in the final 25 yards Rumrill pulled out a slight lead and won in 1:07.80 to Matthews' 1:08.67.
"That's kind of what Kate wants to swim at districts is breaststroke, and so for Mackenzie to swim that and (test her) is good," West Salem 10th-year coach Dan Evans said.
Sprague's Dow finished third and Heather Kuizenga was fourth in the race, giving the Olympians valuable team points.
When it comes to the district meet, which takes place Feb. 10-11 at the Kroc Center, the scoring is different and it will be a different challenge for a team to defeat West Salem.
"We have some kids that were sick that weren't able to swim today or injured," Evans said. "That had something to do with it. Districts will be a lot different. Our girls know what's at stake. I think they'll swim a lot better at districts."
On the boys side, West Salem continued in the dominating fashion it has shown this season as the Titans won every race but one — Sprague's Patrick Daniels won the 100 free.
West Salem got wins by freshman Scott Svadlenak (200 free), junior Alika Masei (200 IM and 100 back), Caleb Evans (50 free), freshman Jeffrey Tran (100 fly and 500 free), Sam Evans (1:12.58) and all three relay races.
"I believe we have a … good chance to win the league title," Masei said. "We have a lot of good swimmers, but we also have a lot of depth."