Within the close-knit swimming community, 1993 will best be remembered as the year Cape Elizabeth lost the state Class A boys championship.

Bangor High Coach Phil Emery prefers to look at it another way.

“The way I explained it is that championship teams don’t make those types of mistakes,” Emery said of Cape Elizabeth’s last-event disqualification, which in turn gave the Rams their 13th state big school championship.

“We swam the whole meet without a mistake or disqualification,” Emery added. “We wanted to be in a situation where we could win it if we swam better than somebody else. We wanted to put the pressure on so other teams would make the mistakes.”

In swimming, to slighty alter the old sports cliche, it’s not over until the fat lady jumps in the pool.

Entering the final event, the 400 free relay, Cape Elizabeth knew it had to win and have Bangor finish fourth or worse. The Capers won – barely out-touching Morse – while Bangor finished fourth – getting edged out by Westbrook.

Suddenly, the over-zestful anchor of Cape’s had-to-win-and-did relay squad pulled a teammate into the pool before the event was completed, leading to a disqualification, and giving Bangor the title.

While this stroke of luck gave Bangor the championship, Emery will remember this team for its hard work which helped the Rams rise to the occassion and put together the team’s best meet of the year.

In Bangor’s 48 swims, 44 turned out to be personal best times.

“We pulled out every single point that we could,” Emery said. “We were solid. We placed two or three people in almost every event. We did everything we had to do.”

Todd Oldenburg, a junior, was the lone individual champion for Bangor, tying for first in the 100 butterfly.

The 200 freestyle relay of team of Ben Carlisle, Brian Long, Oldenburg, and Chris Gallon also picked up a victory. In the morning’s trials, Matt Cook swam in Carlisle’s spot and the Rams set a school record with a time of 1:33.03.

Bangor’s depth is what keyed the championship.

Sophomore Dan Reid (second in the 100 breaststroke, fifth in the 500 free), Oldenburg (third in the 50 free), senior Carlisle (fifth in the 100 back, sixth in the 200 free), freshman Cook (third in the 500 free, eighth in the 200 free), sophomore Long (sixth in the 200 I.M., seventh in the 100 free), senior Jay Hannon (sixth in the 100 back, 12th in the 200 I.M.), senior Gallon (fourth in the 100 free, eighth in the 50 free), freshman Chris Falk (seventh in the 100 back, ninth in the 200 I.M.); and sophomore Dan Silver (12th in the 500 free) each scored valuable points.

Hannon, Reid, Oldenburg, and Long also teamed up to finish third in the 200 medley relay while Carlisle, Gallon, Falk, and Cook combined to finish third (fourth before Cape’s DQ) in the 400 free relay.

In the diving, Soubahn Phanthay was fifth and Alex Zendzian was seventh.

With Westbrook and Morse of Bath having outside shots to contend with Cape and Bangor, all the coaches involved were stressing the tightness of the meet.

“In the 200 medley relay, the winning time by Cape was a meet record, Morse set a school record to finish second, and Bangor set a school record and finished third,” said Emery, who also threw some praise to assistant coaches Laurie Walls and Michelle Giroux. “That gave a good indication that we were all there to swim.”

In the end, the Rams swam the best, and the smartest, and were awarded with the spoils of being state champions once again.