By james art
Manchester — If it weren’t for the surroundings — the lush greenery and idyllic Wickham Park — Saturday’s CIAC Class MM boys cross country final looked like a practice run in East Lyme.
There was individual champion Sean McAuley sweeping the field, serving as an illustration of what the Vikings accomplished as a team.
East Lyme won the race and the championship, accumulating 21 points, well ahead of No. 2 EO Smith (55) and Avon (121). And the Vikings did just that with McCauley’s championship time of 15 minutes, 55 seconds, followed by teammates Sam Leone (second, 16:10), Matthew Carrier (fifth, 16:25), Jack Feich (sixth, 16:27) and Jilali Benjdid (seventh, 16:32).
“It shows how deep we are,” McCauley said. “It shows how much we care. I feel like we run for each other. It adds to the legacy that is being built here.”
According to East Lyme coach Mike Flynn, the Vikings had their lowest scoring total ever in Class MM, McCauley broke East Lyme alum Luke Anthony’s meet record (and former day player of the year), the team broke the Class MM team record with three minutes and runs the fourth fastest time at Wickham.
East Lyme’s dominance highlighted what was an eastern Connecticut-palooza Saturday in Wickham. Joining the Vikings as team champions were the Lyman Memorial girls in Class S; Old Lyme’s Chase Gilbert, the Class S individual champion; and Tycen LaBelle of Griswold, Class SS Boys Champion.
McCauley’s reference to “heritage” comes fairly. The Vikings won their third straight title and fifth since 2017.
“For the team aspect to be as complete as it is, it feels really good,” McCauley said. We are really strong. It’s very exciting.”
Individually, McCauley didn’t seem nearly as impressed with himself, saying “the most important things are next week (State Open on Thursday) and the week after that (New England).”
Elsewhere, Lyman’s team championship came with a win over Hale-Ray (74-79). ECC girls champion Hazel DeLucia was second behind Gilbert, running with Elizabeth Person, Sylvie Hiltz, Nora Johnson, Kayla Osga, Lucy Gardella and Hannah Bauer. The Bulldogs finished with three runners in the top 18.
“It means a lot,” Delucia said. “We put in a lot of work. We knew there was a chance it could happen, but it’s great that we did it.”
Gilbert, meanwhile, finished in 18:29 in preparation for Thursday’s State Open.
“I wanted to keep in mind that the State Open is Thursday and there aren’t many days in between, so I didn’t want to kill myself,” she said. “But there is a lot of competition in this race. We were all together for about a mile and I thought “oh my god, that’s a bit hot.”
LaBelle, who ran 16:18 and led the Wolverines to a team second-place finish, was mostly stoic after his win, preferring to focus on the team.
“I did my duty to my team,” he said. “It was a team day.”
Running with LaBelle: Shawn Silva, Dylan Bailey, Xavier De La Rosa, Dylan Marchand, Cole Fontaine and Sam Gilgenbach.
Waterford’s Avery Meise finished third overall in the Class M girls race, clocking a personal best at Wickham in 19:42. Maiese’s previous mark was 19:49 in her sophomore season.
“I was third last year and I wanted to repeat that,” Maiese said. “My other goal was to set a personal best for this course. It was a beautiful day for running.”
Maiese was one of several ECC runners who greeted the hilly challenges of the ECC race at Norwich Golf Course last week.
“I think the ECC course is the hardest we run all year,” Maiese said. “The hills of Norwich definitely set you up for that.”
The Lancers (Maiese, Elle Dibuono, Madalitso Vincent, Ava Tucker, Adeline Steinhaus, Leah Sanders, Chloe Butler) were seventh overall.
The Ledyard boys finished third overall in Class M (Antonio Soldato, Grayson Stevenson, Lucas Heide, Raymond Grogan, Jacob Parker Vidlica, Nathan Perry, Hunter Lupo) and Bacon was sixth (Boden Paul, Michael Dickey, Alex Sanchez, Jeremy Bennett , Ian McClain, Benjamin Adams, Evan Lovegrove).
Ledyard’s Maggie Littler finished fifth overall in the Class MM girls race (20:27), helping the Colonels finish fourth overall along with Kaitlyn Sweeney, Kate Littler, Josie Withbroe, Ella Lafontaine and Fionna Woody. East Lyme was fifth with Lauren Fulcher, Maya D’Aquila, Catherine Wren, Jillian Fant, Alison Caskey and Emily McLean.
NFA’s Patrick Crawwell ran 16:24 to finish fourth in the Class LL boys race, while Karina Chan ran 19:30 to finish sixth for the NFA girls.