Ledyard — In the spring, Norwich Free Academy coach Kara Kochanski-Vendola scheduled a girls' cross country meeting to pass out information for the fall.

However, the Class LL track state championship was continued until the next day because of rain and Kochanski-Vendola, who also coaches in the spring season, couldn't attend her own meeting. That's when then senior-to-be Henley Smith stepped in.

"She had a nice spring track season, like, 'I can do this. I can be the top one (in cross country),'" Kochanski-Vendola said. "She led the cross country meeting. She led the girls all summer long. She wanted it."

Smith, who was sixth or seventh in the Wildcats' lineup last season, has been first or second this year.

She was example No. 1 on Tuesday of NFA runners with points to prove.

The Wildcats' girls' and boys' cross country teams each swept a pair of Eastern Connecticut Conference Large Division rivals to take control of the standings.

The NFA girls beat Ledyard 20-43, avenging last year's loss to the Colonels which helped cost the Wildcats the ECC title. They also topped Woodstock Academy, which opened the season last week with the sweep of a Large Division tri-meet, 25-36. Woodstock defeated Ledyard 23-33.

The NFA boys, led by a victory from junior Connor Gralton in 16 minutes, 22.9 seconds, beat Ledyard 25-34 and Woodstock 15-50. Ledyard defeated Woodstock 19-40.

Ledyard's Megan Brawner won the girls' race in 20:10 and was followed by Woodstock's Sylvia Lawrence and Hannah Matsas before a parade of NFA runners finished fourth through 11th.

Margaret Lewerk, Smith, Alyssa Field, Lindsay Sylvia, Kelsie Hall, Mackenzie Lane, Emma Trombley and Reide Jacksin claimed the win for the Wildcats (4-0, 3-0).

"They've got quite a pack," Ledyard coach Bruce Douglass said of NFA. "They're spread out (more than a pack), but you don't get many people in between. And the whole group will keep getting faster."

"We had to have a good mental capacity, believe in ourselves and the rest would just go," NFA's Smith said.

Gralton was followed in the boys' race by Ledyard's Bryce Hedman (16:47), NFA's Brandon Mehlinger (16:51), Ledyard's Aaron Norcia (16:58) and Ledyard's Christian Kuss (17:08).

NFA runners finished sixth through 11th, led by Normand Manning, William Strong and Tyler Sholes.

Hedman defeated Gralton to win the ECC 1,600 meters during track season, but took some time off during the summer to rest a nagging injury in his shin. Gralton said he made excuses at the time for the defeat to Hedman, but thought a lot about it over the summer.

"Every little run, I would pretend it was Bryce behind me or some kid from Glastonbury," Gralton said. "I just wanted to go out and I decided to make every little run worth it. Otherwise, you just wasted an hour of running."

Gralton, the defending ECC cross country champion, transferred to NFA last year from St. Bernard, where he was sixth in Class S as a freshman. During his first Class LL meet last season, Gralton said it was a rude awakening to finish 58th.

"I have more motivation (this year). The entire time, people would say, 'Oh, he's just a freshman or just a sophomore or just an eighth-grader.' This is the year," Gralton said.

NFA coach Chad Johnson wasn't as pleased with the way his team went about winning Tuesday, however, saying that ever since that Class LL race last year the Wildcats worked on pacing themselves. And Tuesday's pace was terrible.

"They're not going to prove anything in the first half-mile," said Johnson, who said his team (4-0, 3-0) ran the first 400 meters of the race on the Ledyard track like, well, they were running a 400-meter race.

"We almost lost it. They fell apart in the second half and feel awful because they did it to themselves. The Ledyard kids left the first 400 in 40th place and they kept picking us off and picking us off and picking us off. They just picked us apart one by one."

Johnson pointed out that had it not been for Gralton out front, there would have been a chance Ledyard runners finished 1-2-3 to win the race.

"Cross country is a lot more strategic than it looks," Johnson said.

Ledyard's boys are 3-1, 1-1, while the Colonels' girls' team is 1-3, 0-2.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday