BANGOR – It wasn’t the chance to compete against one of the state’s top Class A programs that lured the Greely of Cumberland Center boys and girls swimming and diving teams to Husson College for a meet against Bangor Saturday afternoon.

The Rangers face plenty of competitive teams within a 20-minute drive of their high school.

The Rams, however, were pleased the Rangers made the nearly two-hour trip north. The defending Class A state champion Bangor girls and perennially strong Bangor boys rarely face the likes of Greely, whose girls were the Class B state runners-up last year. In fact, Bangor will have to wait until Jan. 26 for its next tough team competition – MDI.

Bangor responded to the challenge. The Ram girls pulled away from the Rangers for a 104-81 win, while the Bangor boys topped Greely 103-82.

“It’s good to be surprised by teams,” Bangor junior Grace Barnett said. “I think a lot of us didn’t expect them to be much of a challenge, so it’s really good. It wakes people up and gets us going.”

So what drew Greely to the Bangor meet Saturday?

“[The road trip] is a team bonding thing,” said coach Rob Hale, who was an assistant coach at Bangor High from 1986 to 1989, during which the boys won four states and the girls three. He has since won six state titles during stints as the head coach at Westbrook and now Greely.

“We have three different practices times, so we don’t spend a lot of time together as a team,” he added. “… Bangor is a team with a lot of sportsmanship and I wanted [Greely] to see that. We don’t always see that in our area.”

In the girls meet, Barnett won two individual events and swam on two winning relays for the Rams.

Barnett and Sorrell Cardello, who went on to win the 100-yard breaststroke, recorded a 1-2 finish in the 100 butterfly.

It proved to be a key event for Bangor, which had a seven-point lead before the butterfly but stretched it to 15 afterward. Eliza Woodcock helped with a fourth-place finish.

Cardello and Lily Herbold, who won the 200 free earlier in the meet, went 1-2 in the breaststroke.

“I definitely think fly and breaststroke get us ahead every time,” Cardello said. “We’re really strong in those two.”

Gabby Babin picked up a victory in the 100 free, and Mara Shapero won the 500 free.

Bangor won the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay, while Greely earned a win in the 400 free relay. Barnett, who swam the third leg of Bangor’s distance relay, posted a speedy 57.24 split, but it wasn’t enough to make up the distance on Greely.

Barnett won the 200 individual medley, outpacing Greely’s Emily Kodis by nearly seven seconds.

“It’s early in the season, so we’re not swimming best times yet, but it’s good to see people trying this hard to get good times in our first meet of the season,” Barnett said of the overall team effort.

Bangor diver Emma Chaiken also faced topnotch competition. Chaiken, who was the Class A state runner-up last year, came in second Saturday to Greely’s Jessica Howard, the two-time defending Class B state champ.

The Rangers also got individual wins from Alex Andrews in the 50 free and Catie Watt in the backstroke.

In the boys meet, Nathan Mecray and Andrew Bowden each picked up two individual wins for Greely, but Bangor won seven events, including all three relays thanks in great part to freshman Joey Quinn.

“That’s the best competition we’re going to have until MDI,” Bangor senior captain Brandon Frenette said. “It’s a good way to start the season.”

Quinn anchored the 200 free relay to a win midway and then had the job of anchoring the 400 free relay, the final event of the afternoon. He said he felt he could make up the body-length lead Greely’s John Madiera had on Bangor’s Taylor Wicks after the third leg.

“I knew I had a pretty good chance to catch them and beat them,” said the 6-foot-2 Quinn. “I saw I was slowly catching up to [Greely anchor Matt Reade].”

Quinn edged Reade at the second flip turn and posted a 52.75 split, the fastest of the event, to give the Rams a 41/2-second win.

Wicks won the IM, while Brian Wardwell took the diving. Tommy Wong was victorious in the 50 free, and Tyler Brookings earned a win in the fly.

Frenette went for an individual win in the back, but Bowden came from behind and out-touched Frenette to win by less than two-tenths of a second.

“I had a few bad flip turns and my mechanics were a little off,” said Frenette, who placed fifth in the event at states last year. “I can definitely improve.”

Mecray won the breaststroke and the 200 free while Bowden took the 100 free in addition to his backstroke win. Patrick Bowden won the 500 free.

The Greely team had a tough schedule this weekend, with a meet at Westbrook Friday and a 7 a.m. departure time Saturday for the trip to Bangor.

“We swam really tired,” Hale said. “We raced, which was good, but we won’t judge our performance time-wise.”