MANCHESTER – Last year, Old Lyme junior Chase Gilbert went to the State Open cross country championship – but only to watch.
Gilbert was one of the favorites in the 5,000-meter race at Wickham Park but a few days after winning the Class S title, she injured her right glute and couldn’t run.
She felt much better, mentally and physically, Saturday after winning the CIAC Class S title once again at Wickham Park, finishing in 18 minutes, 29 seconds, the second fastest girls time of the day.
“It was a tough time but I’m back,” Gilbert said. “I am looking forward to (the State Open) a lot. Last year, I was just so devastated I didn’t get to run.”
The State Open will take place Thursday morning, with the boys race at 10 a.m. and the girls race at 10:45 a.m. The times were moved from the afternoon due to 80-degree temperatures forecast for that day.
Last year, Gilbert’s parents talked her into going to watch the Open.
“We figured it would be better for me mentally to be in the environment rather than sulking at home,” she said.
Gilbert has not raced against Glastonbury senior Brooke Strauss, who won the Class LL title Saturday in the fastest time of the day, this season, so Thursday’s race will be a highly anticipated matchup.
Strauss won a State Open cross country title as a sophomore; she finished second last year. She won her second CCC championship last week. But until Saturday, Strauss had never won a class championship in cross country.
“Got that checked off the bucket list,” Strauss said, laughing.
Strauss won in 18:12, followed by Conard senior twins Tess Sherry (18:35) and Liv Sherry (18:37).
As a freshman, Strauss finished second. Her sophomore year, she was injured for most of the season and the class meet was her first race back. She finished seventh. Last year, she was second to Greenwich’s Esme Daplyn.
“(Sophomore year) was a painful race,” she said. “Last year, I went out and got caught.”
Saturday, she ran smart, surrounded by the Sherrys in the early going before she made her move.
“My goal was not to lead with State Opens coming up Thursday and also being a little windier too,” she said.
Rocky Hill’s Smith wins
Brian Smith made a map of the Wickham Park course before the CCC championships and planned how he was going to tackle it. Smith finished fifth that day behind his teammate, senior Daniel DiTunno, and was happy with how things went.
So he stuck with the same plan Saturday at the Class M state championship and to his surprise, he won in 16:28, a personal best by about 20 seconds.
“I had no idea I could do this,” Smith said. “I wanted to get out decently fast and push that last mile. I started off in fourth and slowly moved up.”
That wasn’t part of the plan, but as his coach Austin Bobrow said, the plan is fluid.
“I wasn’t sure how it was going to play out,” Smith said. “There was a lot of great competition today.”
Rocky Hill won its second straight state championship with 42 points and had two in the top five, with DiTunno finishing fourth.
Mercy’s Roberts wins back-to-back titles
Sarah Roberts, last year’s Class M champion from Mercy, finished second to her freshman teammate Cora Wasiolek last week at the SCC championships. But Roberts said that was OK since the two train together and push each other and whoever’s feeling better on a particular day will win.
Saturday, it was Roberts, a junior, leading her teammate up the hill to the finish line at Wickham Park. Roberts won the Class MM championship in 19:42; Wasiolek was two seconds behind.
“It was really good,” Roberts said. “Me and Cora worked together like we normally do. I felt really strong the whole time.”
Roberts was happy when Wasiolek arrived at Mercy this year.
“They have clicked from the get-go,” Mercy coach Matt Conyers said. “They do everything together. Since Manchester (N.H. Invitational), they’ve been side by side.”
Until the SCC meet, when Wasiolek pulled ahead at the end to win.
“We’re really close and either of us can win any meet so we’re just happy for each other,” Roberts said.
“She’s an awesome teammate,” Conyers said. “Cora coming in was probably the most exciting thing for Sarah this year. But she’s also tough and she does not like to lose.”
Bolton’s Livingston wins as a senior
Bolton senior Shepard Livingston finished third in the Class S championship last year and carried that disappointment through a year of training.
Livingston, who won the NCCC title last week, won the Class S title Saturday in 16:26. His team also won the championship with 51 points, edging out Hale-Ray (59).
“(Last year), I talked to the coaches and we all knew that I could get first and I got in the race and I realized I just wasn’t prepared enough that day,” Livingston said. “I hadn’t trained enough over the summer and I couldn’t hang with (last year’s winner) Lorenzo (Lopes of Immaculate) and the top guys. I knew I wasn’t at that level. It kind of spurred me to be consistent with my training and I think it’s paid off.”
Lopes finished second (16:41).
Xavier wins sixth straight class title
Xavier has won a state title every year since 2017. The Falcons won their sixth class championship in Class L, with 42 points. They had three runners (Owen Martin, third; Jack Ouellette, fifth and Owen Jones, ninth) in the top 10.
In 2017, Xavier did not win the class championship but won the State Open. They won the class title every year after that.
“There’s that little caveat – seven consecutive seasons with a state championship but Open vs. class,” coach Chris Stonier said. “It’s still a seven-season stretch of being really proud of the kids. They did well.”
Haddam-Killingworth sweeps Class SS
Jack Cozean finished fourth and his teammate Daniel McCourt fifth as Haddam-Killingworth won the boys Class SS title with 44 points. The H-K girls team won the championship for the sixth straight year with 23 points. The girls had five of the top 11 runners led by runner-up Charlotte Behnke (20:31) and third-place Grace Mitchell (20:41).
