BANGOR – The Brewer boys swimming and diving team worried Phil Emery enough that the Bangor boys coach rearranged some of his lineup for Saturday morning’s dual meet.

Indeed, the Witches won their share of events. But a bigger Ram team had too many third- and fourth-place finishers – along with some key wins – for Brewer to overcome.

Bangor, the defending Class A state champion, finished with 111 points to 72 for Brewer at the Husson College pool.

Both teams expected the meet to be the closest the two rivals have had in several years.

“Coach talked about how it was going to be a tough meet and we had to put all we had into it,” said Bangor’s Tyler Brookings, who won both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races. “We had to try to get firsts and seconds or seconds and thirds.”

Emery said he worked on the lineup to ensure the Rams would get a lot of those critical second- and third-place finishes in events they might not have the front-line strength to win.

Emery made some changes in the medley relay, switching out Brookings, who went to the second medley relay group, and Joey Quinn, and moving in Zack Veilleux and Thomas McOscar.

The Rams responded with first and second place, followed by Brewer in third.

“I worked on this for a couple of days and I was up at 5:15 this morning and I thought, I’ve got to do something,” Emery said. “I have enough respect for [the Brewer] program and how far [coach Kathy Cahill] has brought them not to fool around.”

Brewer showed its strength in the back half of the meet, winning five of the last eight events. Todd Shane won the diving to start the run, followed by John Williams in the 100 butterfly. Bangor won three events in a row, and then Williams took the breaststroke and the Witches were first in the 400 free relay.

But it wasn’t enough to rally past the Rams. In each event Brewer won, a Bangor swimmer or relay was second and third except for the diving, which had just one Ram participant.

“A lot of times today Brewer ended up second and fifth, and Bangor took 1, 3 and 4,” senior Williams said. “That’s what kills you, the thirds and fourths. To have a guy not score points in sixth place hurts. Bangor’s just got the depth. We’re getting better every year, but the depth makes a big difference.”

Although the final score wasn’t as close as originally thought, the battles between two of Maine’s top distances swimmers lent plenty of drama to the morning.

Bangor sophomore Quinn edged Brewer senior Andrew Meehan by about 1.4 seconds in the 200 free, but Meehan’s strategy of hanging back in the 500 paid off for him. Meehan outtouched Quinn by just two-tenths of a second after letting Quinn take an early lead.

Meehan said it was important to set a good pace for himself, because he felt he went out too fast in the 200 and didn’t have a lot of energy for the end of that race

“In the 500, I talked to [Cahill] and paced it a lot better,” he said. “I went out slower at the start so I’d have something left for the last 200 yards. It worked a lot better.”

The two shared a quick hug after the exciting race.

“It makes it easier to go faster with someone pushing you,” Meehan said. “I find it harder when it’s just me swimming. When he’s right next to me I always do better times.”

One event later, Quinn outdueled Meehan as the two swam the same leg of the 200 free relay.

Taylor Wicks won the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke, while a 200 free relay of Veilleux, Wicks, Brookings and Quinn took that event.

Brent Williams, Zach Beaulier, John Williams and Meehan won the 400 free relay. John Williams, who swam the third leg, overtook Bangor and Meehan helped seal it.

The Witches were pleased with their relay win, but not with their time of 3:49.55, which is about 13 seconds slower than their season best, which was the second-fastest time in the state last week.

It’s hard to swim fast at the end of this meet because it’s just the boys competing, so there’s little down time between races as opposed to combined boys and girls meets. In fact, the swimmers did a 25-yard length at the end of some of the races just to stretch things out a bit.

“I swam back-to-back the 100 [breaststroke] and then went right into the relay,” John Williams said. “That’s tough to do.”

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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