Toward the end of a season a coach wants to see the best effort from her athletes.

OHHS boys swim coach Erika Miller received that this week, as the Wildcats dominated Stanwood 132-29 in their final home meet on Tuesday, before losing a close meet, 114-69, to one of the WesCo North’s top teams, Marysville-Pilchuck, on Thursday.

“They’re swimming really well right now and I think that we’ll find some of the guys will get more fired up for the district meet,” Miller said.

The Wildcats won all 11 events on Tuesday against a Spartan team that only had five participants. Facing such a small team, Miller opted to put athletes in events they are not completely familiar with.

Evan Wilson and Matt Bender won multiple races. Wilson took the 200 individual medley (2:28.39) and the 100 butterfly (1:07.12), while Bender won the 200 free (2:17.46) and 500 free (6:24.15).

Other individual winners on Tuesday included Brian Hall (50 free), Colby Karlik (100 free), Aaron Ridle (100 back) and Russell Chesnut (100 breaststroke).

Despite the loss on Thursday, Miller was happy with what she saw from Oak Harbor. Three close relay loses, in particular the 200 free, is where the difference was made.

“Basically the one kid had his head behind our kid, but his arm was longer,” Miller said.

Individual winners on Thursday included Wilson (200 IM, 500 free), Bender (200 free), Spence (100 fly), and Hall (100 free).

Oak Harbor swimmers will now prepare for the district meet, which begins with prelims on Feb. 10 and finals on Feb. 12. Both events are a Marysville-Pilchuck.