Talk about a sweet — and sensational — surprise.

At the end of a dramatic 200-yard-medley relay race at last weekend’s 3A Girls State Swim & Dive Championships, the Bainbridge Spartans found themselves in familiar territory: first at the finish line and on their way to the top step of the winners’ platform.

The fantastic foursome of Allison Murphy, Olivia Dow, Candice Rosen and Ani Duni won the state title for Bainbridge High in an amazing time of 1:46.72.

It was a new meet record, and shattered the previous best mark at the King County Aquatics Center — set by Bainbridge in 2013 — and was also an All-American consideration time.

“I can’t believe we went that fast,” Dow said after the race.

She was shocked speechless, she admitted.

“Oh, my goodness. Absolutely no words.”

Dow wasn’t the only one left in amazement.

Besides the audience that became unhinged at the exciting end — Bainbridge came from behind to topple perennial rivals Lakeside and Mercer Island — put Bainbridge Coach Greg Colby in that crowd, too.

“I can’t believe they went that fast,” he said.

“If they would have told me there were going to go 1.46, I would have told them they were crazy,” Colby said.

True, Bainbridge has almost absolutely owned the event over the past three decades. The Spartans have taken first in the event at the state championships more times than any other team — that’s 10 titles in the 200-yard medley relay not counting this year — and Bainbridge had also previously posted five of the top 10, all-time best times in the race.

Even so, the last time BHS won the relay outright was with the help of Spartan standout Shayla Archer, two years ago.

“We were all pretty overwhelmed with excitement and emotion just because it was so unreal,” Murphy said. “We were not expecting to go that fast.

Murphy was on the Spartans’ state team in 2013, and this year, another title was pretty much unthinkable.

“We were going into this like, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen,’” she recalled, “because at districts we didn’t get first and at Metros we didn’t get first in the event. We were just kind of like, ‘let’s see what happens.’”

Indeed. The Spartans were bested at the Metro League race by Lakeside by nearly two seconds, and at the Sea-King District 2 Championships, Bainbridge placed a narrow second to Lakeside.

But if the Spartans needed any additional motivation to claim the state crown again, they needed only to look to the side of the pool.

Murphy said it was their fitting farewell to Coach Colby, who is retiring as coach of the team after 24 seasons.

“It being Greg’s last year, we were like, ‘Let’s try to win this one for Greg,’” Murphy said.

Did they ever.

To win, the Spartans needed to shear seconds off their legs.

Murphy, first in the pool, said she knew she had to finish in under 28 seconds.

“I went 27. I was like, ‘Oh my God, we have a chance.’”

Next in went Dow, who pushed the Spartans into the lead with an impressive breaststroke time.

“It was a team effort,” Rosen was quick to add.

“I still have no words for it. It was such an amazing experience and I’m so glad I was able to share it with such an amazing group of girls.”

Duni finished off the race for the Spartans, just a whisper in front of Lakeside: .0088 seconds.

She recalled hitting the wall and seeing a familiar Lakeside competitor in the next lane, trying to match her stroke for stroke.

Duni said she didn’t recall much about the race, it was a blur, but that, she remembers.

“I definitely remember flipping and I saw Abbey Wagner,” Duni said. “I was like, ‘I want to beat you so badly.’”

Duni — along with Murphy and Rosen — shared the previous record with Archer. Getting the new record was icing on her four-year career as a Spartan swimmer, she said.

“Being able to finish out that relay that we had started years before was great,” she said.

The Spartans’ title in the 200 medley relay wasn’t the only time the sizable Bainbridge contingent rose to their feet at the state meet.

The team won the third-place trophy, and Coach Colby was named Coach of the Year.

Cammy Rouser placed second for BHS in one-meter diving. At last year’s meet, she placed fourth.

She exited Friday’s preliminaries in a great spot to challenge. Rouser ended the semis with a score of 258.15, in second, just behind Lakeside’s Amber Chong, with 270.90.

“I was so happy because I was going into the last day, third, but everyone was super close,” Rouser recalled.

“I just wanted to be top three. I was like, third place will be fine. That will be cool, too,” she said.

Rouser’s set of dives: inward dive straight; inward 1½ somersault pike; reverse dive pike; reverse 1½ somersault pike; reverse 1½ somersault ½ twist; front 1½ somersault pike; front 2½ somersault tuck; back dive straight; back 1½ somersault pike; back 1 sommersault 1½ twist; and back 1½ somersault ½ twist.

She said she was strategic with the last dive, her favorite.

“I put it last because it’s a very comfortable dive and I never really like mess it up,” she said.

“It’s very consistent. But it was way better than it usually is,” she said.

Rouser was waiting for the final scores with fellow Spartan diver Jackie Hellmers — who placed 16th — when Spartan Assistant Coach Patti Peterson stepped forward to break the news.

“Pattie told me I got second and I was like, ‘Whoa, wait, that’s awesome.’”

Rouser finished with a score of 374.80, second to Chong’s 413.45.

The Spartan standout was quick to point out the fine showing of fellow diver Hellmers.

“This is her freshman year. She did amazing,” Rouser said.

“She really has put in the effort to get there. I was very proud of her.

“How she has improved over the year is honestly so cool.”

The Spartans made plenty of other trips to the medals platform last Saturday.

Rosen placed sixth in the 200-yard freestyle (1:55.27), and Hannah Tonsmann placed ninth in the consolation final.

Tonsmann has been to the state meet before, as a spectator, to watch her brother Marcus swim for the Spartans a few years ago.

This time, it was her turn and something she’d dreamed about. And what a race it was.

Tonsmann said she remembered the time Bainbridge’s Olympic medalist Emily Silver shared her story with her club team, and told the swimmers to reach for the wall at the end.

Tonsmann made that reach: She edged Audrey Hixon of Mercer Island, 1:57.89 to 1:58.08 — a difference of .0019 seconds — to win the consolation race.

“I was so excited,” she said.

Murphy also placed fifth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:11.04) and teammate Lauren Witty placed 15th (2:15.18).

Duni was fourth in the 50-yard freestyle (24.25), and Rosen placed fourth in the 100-yard butterfly (57.62) while teammates Erin Miller placed 11th (59.94) and Shea Schardein, 13th (1:00.57).

Witty also placed 15th in the 100-yard freestyle (55.98).

The relay team of Amanda Comeau, Dow, Carina Laukaitis and Duni medaled in the 200-yard freestyle relay and won third place (1:39.13).

In the 100-yard backstroke, Murphy was on the medal stand again with fifth place (59.33). Schardein tied for 13th place (1:01.76).

Duni won a fourth-place medal in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.81), while Dow was ninth (1:07.38) and Melinda Carr was 15th (1:10.71).

Bainbridge finished the meet on the medal stand. The relay team of Tonsmann, Witty, Murphy and Rosen was fourth in the 400-yard freestyle with a time of 3:38.77.