MANCHESTER – Once the postseason rolls around, Glastonbury’s Brooke Strauss puts her running watch away.
“You can just focus on competing with people instead of constantly being in your head,” Strauss said.
Without her watch, Strauss, a senior, ran her fastest time on the Wickham Park 3.1-mile cross country course by 40 seconds Tuesday afternoon, winning her second CCC championship in 17 minutes, 54.8 seconds.
“Usually, I would race with a watch, so I track splits,” she said. “But this, I was just trying to go for the win, I didn’t really care about time.
“I mean, I heard people yelling out things, so I thought I was on the faster side, but I wasn’t really sure.”
Strauss, who won the State Open title her sophomore year and was the State Open runner-up last year, beat second-place Liv Sherry of Conard by almost a minute (18:50.7). Liv’s sister Tess, last year’s winner, was third (18:54.20).
Glastonbury, which had three runners run under 20 minutes, won the team title with 40 points and Hall was the runner-up (133). It was the ninth team championship for the Guardians in the last 13 years.
E.O. Smith senior Spencer Slayton won the boys title in 16:07.80, pulling away from Southington senior Billy Liebler after the first mile. Liebler finished second (16:34.80) and East Catholic’s Braeden Knotts third in 16:38.60. E.O. Smith won the team title with 66 points for the second straight year and Hall was second (76).
Last year, Slayton finished 14th so it was a big improvement.
“Just consistency – going out every day, rain or shine, and training,” he said of the difference between the two years. “Going into this, that’s what I had my mind on (winning).’’
Strauss won the CCC title her freshman year but was injured her sophomore year and did not run until the class championships but then ended up winning the Open. Last year, she finished third at the CCC championship behind Tess Sherry and Katie Bohlke of Newington and was second at the Open behind Bohlke, who is running at Virginia Tech now.
“I’m feeling a lot better this year than last year,” Strauss said. “I was hurt sophomore year; last year I was healthy for cross country but I think it’s been good since two summers ago – I had a whole school year and another summer of being healthy.”
The weather was perfect for cross country with temperatures in the 50s. The course was dry, which also helped the runners.
“It was really good conditions today,” Strauss said.
