BANGOR – With one event to go in the Eastern Maine Class A track and field championships, Gary Capehart sat at the top of the Cameron Stadium bleachers and uttered the 10 words that diehard track fans live for.

“Now we’ve got to wait for that four-by-four,” said Capehart, the Bangor High School coach, referring to the traditional meet-ending 1,600-meter relay.

Sometimes, the relay is anticlimactic. And sometimes – like Saturday – it decides the whole meet.

Capehart’s Bangor boys had led for most of the afternoon, piling up points they expected and points they didn’t.

But after 18 events, eight hours and a brief lightning delay, the Rams had a problem: They led, but Brunswick lurked just two points back. Mount Ararat of Topsham trailed by only four. And both teams had faster relay squads than the Rams.

Ten minutes later, it was Mount Ararat celebrating a relay win – and a tie for the EM title with Brunswick.

The Eagles and Dragons scored 82 points each. Bangor finished fifth in the relay to take third with 78.

In the girls meet, Bangor put together a near-perfect meet en route to a 106 1/2-72 1/2 win over runner-up Waterville. Hampden Academy was third with 64 and Brewer fourth with 57.

In the boys meet, Shawn Tardif admitted that he was a bit concerned after his coach informed him that the relay team had to win.

“I was scared right here,” said Mount Ararat anchorman Tardif, who inherited a five-meter lead and extended it on 400-meter champ Kenneth Bettis.

The Eagles ran six seconds faster than their seed time with a blazing 3 minute, 29.89 seconds.

“[Brunswick’s] got a fast team,” he said. “… Bettis is the KVAC champion. But I guess adrenaline did the talking today.”

Tardif added to his adrenaline quotient by making the moments before the race an adventure.

First, he realized he had misplaced his jersey on the bus during the thunderstorm. And after borrowing a friend’s singlet he attached his competitor’s number to the wrong side of it.

With little time left before he had to run, he did the one thing he could.

“I put [my shirt] on backwards and I just took off,” he said.

Oxford Hills speedster Daren Lewis, who earned wins in the 100 and 200, was the lone individual double-winner on the boys side.

In the girls meet, defending champion Bangor established two key patterns early in the day: Not only did their top guns score points, several athletes gave unexpected peformances.

Like in the javelin, where top-seeded Kari Jenkins took second, but sophomore Ashley Chapman, the No. 13 seed, improved by 11 feet to take sixth.

Or in the long jump, where freshman star Emily Capehart outdueled Brewer’s Jen Puiia to win, while junior Molly Weibe overcame some troubles to take fourth.

Weibe shuttled between the long jump, the 100, the 200, and the 400 relay, and after two jumps she stood in tears at the side of the pit. Neither of her first efforts was going to be good enough to place.

“I freaked out, because I had no energy to long jump,” Weibe said. “I love to long jump.”

On her final attempt in the trials Weibe earned herself a slot in the finals – and fourth place – with a leap of 15 feet, 6 1/4 inches.

That’s the kind of day it was for the Rams.

Among the highlights:

Sophomore speedster Alison Smith broke the minute barrier in the 400, clocking a speedy 59.54, took fourth in the 200 and anchored the winning 1,600-meter relay.

Senior Julie Dawson took second in both hurdles races and ran a leg on the winning 400-meter relay team.

Junior Lacey Bogan was third in the 100 hurdles, second in the triple jump and led off the 400 relay.

Senior Kara Crockett was second in the discus and fourth in the shot.

While the Rams were dominating the team competition, Mount Ararat senior Jenn Moreau was having quite an individual day.

Moreau, who will run at Syracuse next year, kicked off the meet by turning in a sizzling 2:13 split – two seconds faster than the existing state record – to erase an 80-meter deficit and lead the Eagles to a win in the 3,200-meter relay.

Then Moreau took aim at the record books, coming up just short in two brilliant solo efforts.

In the 1,600 she finished just .88 short of Wendy Delan’s 1986 mark with a 4:59.98, and in the 800 her 2:16.29 was .69 off Brianna Neault’s record.

Moreau missed last year’s championship meets after spraining an ankle playing pickup basketball the day after Memorial Day.

“I was really looking forward to states and regionals,” Moreau said. “But they both kind of got wiped away.”

Mt. Blue of Farmington’s Pete Brown set a state record in the 1,600-meter racewalk, paring nearly 10 seconds off the mark he set last year.

Brewer’s Abby Bouzan-Kaloustian and Cony’s Lianna Neilsen seemingly added their names to an already crowded list of record-holders when each cleared 8-6 in the pole vault. At the completion of the meet, nine girls shared the Class A mark. Or did they? At the same time, Edward Little’s Megan Kohlmeyer was busy establishing a new mark of 9-0 in the Western Maine regional.