BRUNSWICK – The four members of the Bangor boys swim team’s 400-yard freestyle relay were heading to the awards ceremony for their sixth-place medals during Tuesday night’s Class A state championship meet when coach Phil Emery pulled out a thick, well-worn, black lesson-plan notebook with detailed practice schedules, split times and plans for his Rams.

Emery turned to a page in the notebook on which he scrawled “Never worry again” in red ink with about one month left in the season.

“What I mean was, don’t panic,” he said. “I’ve been here so many times. When it looks like they’re getting worse, they really aren’t. It’s the calm before the storm.”

Emery was right not to panic. Although he couldn’t have imagined at the beginning of the season that Bangor would contend for Class A state crown, everything came together at the right time.

After their swims in Tuesday morning’s preliminary heats at Bowdoin College’s Greason Pool, the Bangor boys were more than in contention. They were in charge.

The Rams led the entire meet, starting with a victory in the 200-yard medley relay, en route to 307 points and the program’s 22nd Class A state championship.

Emery, who is in his final year as a science teacher at Bangor High and could also decide to retire from coaching after taking over the Bangor team in 1969, admitted he didn’t think he’d every see another state title on his watch.

“That ran through my mind,” said Emery, who has coached all but one of Bangor’s title teams and was a senior captain on the Rams’ 1964 state championship team. “I didn’t think the cards would come together. It would be a great way to end my career, but I will take some time, sit down and think about [retiring from coaching].”

The Rams won only the medley relay and 200 freestyle relay. They also pulled it off with a big group of swimmers who started their high school careers relatively inexperienced in competitive swimming – the Lane Sixers, as Emery refers to them. Senior Brandon Frenette, who scored in one championship final, one consolation final and was on both winning relays, was one of those swimmers at the beginning of his career.

“I remember my freshman year and looking at the times of the top six finishers in the state meet,” he said. “It’s good to know maybe somebody’s looking up at me to see what I went.”

Westbrook was the runner-up with 253 points, followed by Scarborough with 241.5, Cape Elizabeth with 233 and Morse of Bath with 202.

A small but strong Brewer team had a fine meet as Andrew Meehan, Zach Beaulier and brothers Brent Williams and John Williams all scored in individual championship finals and in the Witches’ two top-8 relays. Brewer was sixth with 160 points.

Bangor’s girls team won its state meet Monday night, making this the first time since 1996 that the Rams have swept the two meets and the 10th time one school has swept both Class A meets. Bangor has now done it eight times.

The Ram girls earned their title with just one event win. The Bangor boys had it only slightly easier, with the two relay wins. The Rams did, however, place enough swimmers and divers in the top 16 to cruise past the Blue Blazes.

Going into the meet Emery calculated Bangor was 19 points behind Westbrook, not counting the points Bangor would accrue in diving and relays. After the morning preliminary heats, the Rams were ahead by 24 points, not counting diving.

“I thought we were going to have to come from behind,” Frenette said. “But really, we just had to defend our lead. … This is just so great for the whole team. We’ve improved so much. It all came together at the end and we pulled it off.”

The Rams started out with a win in the 200-yard medley relay thanks in part to Tommy Wong’s strong freestyle anchor leg.

Joey Quinn was fourth in an exciting 200 free, after which Bangor had a slim 64-63 lead. Taylor Wicks followed with a third-place finish in the individual medley to help give the Rams more of a cushion. Wong and Brookings went 3-5 in the 50 free as Bangor started to pull away. Four Ram divers later, led by Brian Wardwell’s sixth-place finish, Bangor had a 60-point lead.

Bangor didn’t place anyone in the butterfly, but Westbrook wasn’t able to put up a fight at that point with just one swimmer finishing 10th for seven points in that event.

Brookings was sixth in the 100 free and swam the second leg of the Rams’ victorious 200 free relay along with Wong, Frenette and anchor Quinn. Frenette and Wicks posted Bangor’s best duo finish of the championships, going 2-3 in the backstroke.

“Taylor Wicks had a great swim in the IM and Joey did great in the 200 free and 500 free,” Frenette said.

James Moreside, who was 10th in the IM going into the meet, wound up sixth overall. He also moved up in the 500 free, from the 11th seed to eighth in the championships. Ryan Warner, who was seeded 21st in the 50 free, moved into the consolations and was 14th overall.

Brewer junior Meehan, who has become one of the top swimmers with just a few years of competitive swimming under his belt, was fifth in the 200 and fourth in the 500. Brent Williams also scored in both distance free events, finishing eighth in the 200 and seventh in the 500 free.

John Williams took fourth in the fly and fifth in the IM.

The Witches’ 200 and 400 free relays also landed in the championship finals, finishing seventh and third, respectively.

“It was a great meet,” John Williams said. “Our relays did well. We can’t complain there, especially since none of us are seniors. We have two juniors and two freshmen, so we’ll have everybody back on the same relay teams next year.”

Hampden’s Josh Ranger turned in a fourth-place finish in the 100 free. He was the top seed in the breaststroke but suffered a disqualification in his morning heat because of an incorrect kick.

Morse’s Keaton Scarponi, won his fourth straight diving championship and was named the Performer of the Meet. South Portland was the sportsmanship winner.

Sean McLellan, a 1983 Hebron Academy graduate, was on hand in case the 50 free record he set that year was broken in Tuesday’s meet. It wasn’t, but McLellan wants his 21.65 erased.

“I would have loved to see it go,” he said. “Records were made to be broken.”