ORONO – If they were looking for a statement to be made in Tuesday’s Class B swimming and diving state championship meet, they didn’t have to wait long for it.

The Mount Desert Island Trojans started off Tuesday’s finals with the equivalent of a cannonball at the University of Maine’s Wallace Pool as their 200-yard medley relay team of Frank Carbone, Eric Eaton, Reid Swanson and Kevin Staples won with a scorching personal-best time of 1 minute, 44.40 seconds.

“The medley relay was a great way to kick things off. Us and Greely both went a full second faster than what we had before. It was a phenomenal race,” said MDI coach Tony Demuro.

The Trojans seized the early lead, plenty of momentum, and basically never looked back en route to a 19-point victory over runner-up Greely of Cumberland Center and their second straight state crown.

With Greely and Old Town (who eventually finished third) breathing down their necks at the meet’s halfway point and MDI leading Old Town by 19 points, the Trojans put together a three-race run that propelled them to the title.

MDI finished with 236 points, followed by Greely’s 217, Old Town’s 209, Ellsworth’s 102 and Belfast’s 89 in the 25-team meet.

Staples started the Trojans run with a scalding time of 49.91 seconds in the 100 freestyle to win by .93 seconds over Greely’s Andre Lavoie. MDI’s junior beat his previous best in the race by two full seconds.

“I didn’t think I could do it,” Staples said. “I don’t know what it was. I guess having everyone in that race pushing me helped.”

MDI scored another momentum-fueling win when sophomore Carbone beat his previous best this season in the 500 freestyle by two seconds with a searing 5:03.58 to go from third to first in a race that Old Town and Greely each had two swimmers racing.

“I was looking at both of them. I knew basically if I could keep a little ahead of them, I’d beat them, but right around the 75, I knew I had them. I just put my head down and gave everything I had those last three laps,” Carbone said. “I think maybe it [the 500] helped us turn the corner, but there were a ton of great swims. It was everybody.”

That point was made by his teammates in the very next race as MDI’s 200 free relay team of Josh Radford; sophomore Reid Johnson, the only non-junior on the team; Eaton, and Staples churned out a 1:33.41 to edge Ellsworth for first place.

“Our 200 free relay teams had never been under 1:35 all year,” said Demuro. “But stuff like that happened one through 12 today. They all did best times and swam absolutely out of the minds. They couldn’t have swam any better.”

Old Town junior Jacob Shanley snapped the MDI run by notching his second individual win of the day in the 100 backstroke (his other was the 200 individual medley), but it wasn’t enough.

“They won the medley and that was a big race because Greely was second and we were third. Frank came out with that 5:03 and we didn’t see that coming,” Shanley said. “We swam well and as long as you’re getting your best times, you can’t ask for anything more. They had just an unbelievable meet.”

And a consistent one, too. After the first six events, the Trojans had 118 points. After 12, they had 236.

“They swam well in everything,” said Old Town coach Zach Gasaway. “Carbone in the 500… Kevin Staples’ 100 was awesome too. They got a lot of good swims up and down the place today. They were awesome.”

The Trojans’ strongest event was the 200 IM, where they put four swimmers in the championship final race and scored a whopping 43 points.

“We all pretty much turned in our best times of the season,” said Carbone, one of the veteran leaders of a team that has no captains and no seniors.

Other individual standouts Tuesday were Ellsworth sophomore John Hessler, who won the 50 free in 22.96 seconds; Georges Valley of Thomaston sophomore William Guinther, an independent swimmer who practices with Camden Hills, winner of the 100 butterfly; and Orono senior Mo Nazmy, who won the 100 breaststroke.

Old Town’s 400 free relay team of Shanley, Jeffrey Dow, Erland Rismyhr, and Gerald Herlihy capped the meet with a first-place finish.

Greely’s Justin Maldonado was the only non-Eastern Maine winner Tuesday. He scored 323.20 points to win the one-meter dive.