CAPE ELIZABETH – The number had been bandied about for days. If the seeds fell into place, would the Bangor boys swimming team have a 17-point lead over Cheverus of Portland? Was it five points? Ten points? What about the diving and the final relay?

Bangor fans had their minds on those numbers – slim margins, too-close-for-comfort numbers – sitting in the stands at the Donald L. Richards Community Pool.

There was a lot at stake at Saturday’s Class A state championship swim meet. The Rams were looking for their fourth straight title, and there was that matter of Bangor’s seniors being undefeated in their four years. Not to mention that Cheverus of Portland was intent on an upset.

Maybe it was fitting that in four years of perfection, Bangor was pushed and pressured like never before. But the Rams rose to the occasion, holding off a strong challenge from the Stags and earning 248 points for the school’s 20th state championship.

Bangor coach Phil Emery has skippered the Rams for all but the 1964 title. He swam on that team.

The Stags finished with 2301/2 points for second place.

“I’ve only seen Phil Emery sweat twice, and the first time was back in ’97 when we beat them,” Cheverus coach Kevin Haley said with a laugh. “This year it’s a good feeling for us to have a good taper and come out and swim fast.”

Cape Elizabeth was third with 1771/2. Deering of Portland finished fourth and Morse of Bath was fifth.

The Rams only won two events and unlike recent state championship meets, set no records.Some of the Bangor swimmers admitted they were worried. Others said they weren’t.

“I was nervous-excited,” said Emery. “I knew it would be extremely close. Cheverus had a little more depth than we did. I was as excited as I was nervous.”

Emery figured that the relays, which are worth double the points of the individual events, would be the key. The Rams had the top times going into the state meet, but here was the catch: those times were all set with the same relay swimmers for the most part: the Soucie twins Jim and Dan, Tae Chung, Martin Fitch and Eric Palmer.

With all five swimming two individual events each, they could only swim in two relays. That meant plenty of strategizing for Emery in the days before the meet (he even thought about it while administering a quiz at Bangor High School Friday).

Here’s what he came up with:

. Instead of Jim Soucie swimming the freestyle leg of the 200 medley relay, Emery moved him to the butterfly leg and let junior Kiel McDougall take the freestyle, which is the anchor leg of the relay. That move freed up Eric Palmer for what would happen in the 200 free relay in the evening.

The cobbled-together medley relay group earned the top time in the morning heats and went on to win in the evening.

McDougall was surprised when Emery informed him of the relay lineup just before the meet started.

“I had no idea,” McDougall said. “The whole time we were tapering I was training for the fly and the breaststroke. I didn’t think I was going to be in any relays.”

. Palmer and Fitch, fresh out of a 3-5 finish in the 500 free, swam the final two legs of the 200 free relay. Palmer, though exhausted from the previous event, came from behind for second place – ahead of the Stags.

“I knew it was going to be close and I gave it everything I have,” Palmer said. “It was mind over matter. You just go with it.”

. The 400 free relay, the final event, was still suspenseful even though Bangor was 231/2 points ahead of Cheverus. The Rams had to come from behind to earn the second seed for the evening, and false start or disqualification would have done them in.

Dan Soucie led off, Fitch and Palmer swam the middle legs and Jim Soucie anchored the relay to second place.

“The kids swam so well, we ended up with three really good relays,” Emery said.

What helped Bangor even more than top relay finishes were some events in which the Stags had no entrants. The Rams had two divers, Justin Alley and James Innis (Alley was third, Innis was sixth), Cheverus had none, and Haley said that made the difference.

Bangor diving coach Bobbi Stoyall didn’t see it that way.

“My feeling is, whatever team puts together all 12 events, a full team, that team deserves to win. You need to have a full team, and Bangor supports a full program.”

Bernie McDonald and McDougall came up big in the 100 fly. Seeded 13th and 15th, respectively, both Rams swam their way into the consolation finals, where McDonald finished 10th and McDougall was 11th. McDougall was seeded seventh in the 100 breaststroke and knocked 31/2 seconds off his time to finish fourth (Chung was third).

“We had nobody in the fly, and we were just hoping,” Emery said.

Dan Soucie successfully defended his 100 backstroke title from last year, and Cheverus had no backstrokers in the finals. He was also second in the 200 Individual Medley.

Jim Soucie finished second in the 100 free and third in the 50 free.

Brewer, which was the other Class A team north of Augusta to score in the meet, was seventh with 76 points. The Witches were powered by Chris Rodway’s second-place finish in the diving, and fine swims from Mike Sighinolfi, Sabattus O’Connell, Ben Lam and Chris Hanlon. Those four swimmers were sixth in the medley relay and seventh in the 200 free relay.

Sighinolfi was also fourth in the 200 free and eighth in the 100 fly, while O’Connell finished 10th in the 50 free and 11th in the 100 free.

Messalonskee of Oakland’s Marc Gastaldo won his second straight state championship. He had a 250.85-point edge over Rodway.

“I’m very happy. My goal was second this year,” Rodway said. “I knew I wasn’t going to get Marc, but, oh well. Maybe next year.”

Massabesic of Waterboro’s Matt Woodward, who set a meet record in the breaststroke and won the 50 free, was the Swimmer of the Meet.