BANGOR – With a 62-point margin of victory in Saturday’s Penobscot Valley Conference swimming championships – and a virtually clear-cut win after the fifth event of the afternoon – the Bangor girls swim team’s win might have seemed easy.

But it wasn’t.

The Rams won just one event in the meet, and it wasn’t even a swimming race. Instead, the team relied on strong finishes throughout the 12 places awarded in each event for their second straight title and Bangor alum Ginny MacMillan’s first as a coach.

Freshman Samantha Hartery won the diving as the Rams racked up 311 points for the championship at the Husson College pool. Kate Muir won two events to power Mount Desert Island to second place with 249 points. Old Town took third place with 209.

This year, Bangor doesn’t have the strength for first places in most events. The Rams made up for it by taking up to four spots in some events, and several swimmers seeded in the second-fastest heats swam well enough to get into the top six.

That happened twice to sophomore Erin Woolley. She entered the 200 individual medley with the seventh-best time in the field but moved up to sixth place. She was 10th going into the 100 free but emerged in sixth place.

Sophomore Bianca Long was seeded seventh in the 500 free but shaved more than 11 seconds off her best time to finish sixth.

“I guess it was because we wanted it,” Woolley said of her time drops. “As a team we wanted it bad. It really helps when all your teammates tell you you can do it.”

Bangor’s freshmen also had fine showings in their first high school championship meets. Candida Carvajal was second in the 200 free and third in the 500 free. Lucy Gross was sixth in the 50 free and second in the 100 butterfly.

Gross and Carvajal swam the third and fourth legs, respectively, of the second-place medley relay squad (along with Stacey McAvoy and Margie Ervin).

In the 100 free the Rams went 4-6-7-8. After Gross’ second in the fly, Bangor took fifth-, eighth-, and 10th-place finishes.

Bangor’s effort in the 1-meter dive was its best of the afternoon. Hartery tallied 298.45 points for first, Holly Haeberlien took fourth, Katie Meyer was sixth, and Leah Grant finished eighth.

“We usually do a swimmer of the meet after each meet,” said MacMillan, who won three PVCs with Bangor as a swimmer in the 1980s. “But I can’t do that today because everyone did so well. We had so many races where we had three or four swimmers in the top 12, which is just incredible.”

MDI’s Muir recorded easy wins in the 200 free (2:02.64) and the 500 free (5:37.59) even though she hasn’t swum the 500 since the beginning of the season. She also led off the winning 200 medley relay that, along with Colby Meehan, Jennifer Martel, and Jamie Garver, finished in 2:00.34.

Meehan also won the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:14.08. Garver swam the second leg of the winning 200 free relay that also featured Kirsten Nyborg, Jasmine Marie-Peterson, and Sarah Madiera.

Muir said the Trojans are always aware of Bangor’s ability to score top to bottom in events – but that wasn’t a deterrent in their attempt to regain the title that they won in 1998.

“To tell you the truth, we thought we could beat them,” she said. “I think we felt we’d have a run for our money and we swam as hard as we could. They have a lot of depth. But everyone should be pleased with how they did and individual victories.”

Orono’s Kate Kovenock won two events to make her undefeated in PVC championship individual races. The junior freestyler took the 50 free with a time of 24.62 and outdistanced the field in the 100 free by more than five seconds with a 53.74 finish.

Kovenock is also undefeated in her past two Class B state championship appearances. She said she’s working through an asthma problem and is looking forward to swimming at states next weekend, where she will swim the 100 free and another race.

“I’m confident, but you always have to watch out,” Kovenock said. “I’m gonna swim the 100 free, but I haven’t quite decided if I’m gonna do the 200 this year. It’s pretty much gonna be guessing until the due date for entries, just by judging how I feel in practices.”

John Bapst of Bangor’s Jesse Schwartz also won two events, the 200 individual medley (2:19.49) and the 100 backstroke (1:03.21). Old Town’s Amanda Peterson poured it on in the final 25 yards of the 100 fly for a 1:05.42 win.