ORONO – Since when is the term “riffraff” a compliment?

Since the “riffraff” on the Bangor boys swim team proved to be the difference in Monday’s Class A state championship at a packed Wallace Pool on the campus of the University of Maine.

The Rams got past a strong Cape Elizabeth team early in the meet and rolled with 238 points for their fifth straight state title and fifth undefeated season in a row. That stretch matches Bangor’s previous five-year runs of state championships from 1986-90 and 1971-75.

The Bangor boys swim program has won 21 state crowns. Coach Phil Emery has skippered 20 of those teams, and swam on the 1964 championship squad.

The Capers, led by Tom Alberi, held off Deering of Portland and earned runner-up honors with 209 points. The Rams finished third (172). Cheverus of Portland was fourth (170) and Westbrook finished fifth (118).

Brewer scored 82 points to take seventh place.

Emery got the usual stellar swims from his front-line swimmers, but he was elated with how his lower-seeded swimmers provided key points in events like the backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke.

“The riffraff pulled this meet together,” said Emery, wet from the traditional celebratory lap he took with assistant coach Mike Bassi and diving coach Bobbi Stoyall.

“We had a lot of kids who weren’t even seeded, who finished in 12th, 11th, 10th, event after event,” he added. “You expect your top-line swimmers to do well. You build around those guys.”

In the backstroke, for example, sophomore Joey Rice went into the meet with the sixth seed but finished seventh in the prelims. But did it matter? Rice won that consolation final for seventh place, while Erik Lenz (the 18th seed) was 10th, Alex Shapero (ranked 10th) was 11th and Henry Evans (the 13th seed) was 12th.

Cape scored 25 points in the backstroke, but Bangor countered with their 13. It was enough to maintain the lead.

“The thing that Bangor always brings is depth,” Cape coach Kerry Kertes said. “We’re just a smaller school. We knew the meet was going to come down to the consols. We knew we’d put more kids into the finals, in [places] 1-6. But 7-12 was questionable, and they put more kids into 7-12.”

The Rams took 10th, 11th and 12th in the 100 butterfly; 10th and 12 in the 100 free; seventh and 12th in the 500 free; and 3-5-8 in the diving (there were only eight divers).

Emery had scored out the meet beforehand according to the seeds and came up with a two-point Cape win. The coach had a few words of inspiration for his team heading into the morning prelims.

“He said we had two meets to win that day and the only won we had to worry about was the prelims,” recalled senior Kiel McDougall, who was fifth in the breaststroke and 10th in the fly. “We had to win the first meet in order to win the second meet. We had to stay focused. It was a matter of keeping our concentration. We won the first meet, and we had to finish our job [in the evening].”

Senior Scott Loukes provided Bangor’s only individual event win in the 50 free and was second in the 100 free, nearly knocking off Eric Horan of Cheverus. Loukes and Eric Palmer (second in the breaststroke and third in the 200 free) provided excellent racing in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays, both come-from-behind Bangor wins. The Rams were seeded second to Cheverus in the sprint relay.

“We knew we didn’t necessarily need the relay but [winning it] was something we all wanted to do,” Loukes said. “We got ourselves pumped up. … The relays mean a lot to us because it’s the whole team not just one guy.”

McDougall also swam on both relays. Rice led off the medley relay. Martin Fitch, who picked up a third in the 200 IM and a fifth in the 500 free, swam the first leg in the sprint relay and anchored Bangor’s fifth-place 400 free relay.

The Brewer boys turned in a fine performance, especially from brothers Mike Sighinolfi and Chris Sighinolfi.

Then there was Chris Rodway.

Rodway, a senior and runner-up in the diving last season, figured this would be his year. Trouble was, he hadn’t been feeling all that great mentally two weeks ago.

He got it together in time, and delighted his father (Brewer diving coach Chuck Rodway) when he hit a back somersault with 21/2 twists in the free position, a dive with a high 2.7 degree of difficulty. Chris only added the dive to his program in the warmup session, before he filled out his official sheet.

Hitting the dive wasn’t essential, but it gave him a big boost en route to his first state championship.

“Two days ago in practice I did two twists, then I wrapped it a little harder and I got two and a little bit,” he said. “These boards [at UMaine] are a little springier so I figured if I could get a little more height on it I could get around. During warmups I said, I’ll go with it. … That was a huge dive.”

Mike Sighinolfi finished fifth in the 200 free and sixth in the 100 butterfly; Chris Sighinolfi was sixth in the 500 free and seventh in the 200.

The Witches also placed two relays in the top 12. Jason Littlefield was fourth in the diving.

Cape senior Alberi was the logical choice for swimmer of the meet. He won the 200 free and the 500, which were his seventh and eighth individual-event state championships over the course of his career.

Cheverus won the sportsmanship award.