Waterford — It was no surprise to East Lyme coach Carl Reichard that all of his athletes, at the end of the day Saturday, didn't know they won an Eastern Connecticut Conference team championship.

"He gives us our job for the day and tells us just to focus on one thing at a time," East Lyme's Haley Ashton said. "He tells us to just do your best with everything you can. He never tells us what the team points are until the end."

Holding off a resolute effort by ECC Small Division champion Griswold, which was ahead in the team standings for most of the day at Waterford High School, it was East Lyme which won the league's girls' track and field championship with 88 points, knocking off Griswold (75 points) and unseating eight-time defending champion Norwich Free Academy (67).

East Lyme was the ECC Large Division champion this season, winning a dual meet over NFA 76-74. That meet illustrated the Vikings' resilient nature, as, for example, Ashton ran a leg of the winning 4x400-meter relay and then went straight to the high jump to compete there, as well, with every point of the greatest importance.

Saturday, Ashton anchored the winning 4x400 relay team once again, joining Claire Mason, Cassidy Abdeen and Anne Quevreaux to finish in 4 minutes, 12.32 seconds. Ashton also won the 100 hurdles (15.91) and was second in the 300 hurdles.

Ledyard's Megan Brawner was the only individual double-winner among local finishers, defending her titles in the 800 (2:21.98) and 1,600 (5:14.16), with season-best times in both. Brawner was the No. 2 seed in both events.

Griswold's Kalli'Ana Botelho was first in the 100, 200 and high jump.

East Lyme's Kristen Foster was third in the shot put, Lillian Whittaker fourth in the 3,200 and Alexis Burgess fourth in the triple jump. A huddle of Vikings chanted Reichard's name, "Car-l, Car-l, Car-l," as he accepted the first-place plaque.

"They have top-end points," Reichard said of Griswold's dominant performance on the track. "They have a small group of kids that are elite. Fortunately for us, we had more kids score. These kids are very resilient. If they have a bad event, try to move on.

"I thought the points were going to be very divvied up (between teams) and that's what happened. It's really, really hard to handicap places 4-6 or 4-8 (ahead of time). It depends on who has a good day and who doesn't have a good day."

Last year, East Lyme won the regular season meet against NFA, with NFA coming back to win its eighth straight championship meet.

The Wildcats were still in this one until the end, too, as with a few events to go it was Griswold 69, East Lyme 65 and NFA 63, a three-way race. NFA, however, had only one senior score and will be better with experience, coach Kara Kochanski-Vendola said.

"They couldn't have done much better," Kochanski-Vendola said. "There's a lot of girls that had never been to a championship meet. I think it gives the girls more incentive to work over the summer. They have confidence. They're coming around to understanding what it takes — and they want it."

Kochanski-Vendola agreed that East Lyme is resilient and paid her compliments to Reichard, as well.

"He knows what he's doing," she said. "You watch him and you learn."

NFA's Kelsie Hall won the pole vault (10-0), while Montville had individual winners in Naomi Clark  (javelin, 100-4) and Ying Zi Huang (triple jump, 33-11.5). Stonington's Kate Hall was second in the 100 and 200.

v.fulkerson@theday.com