Waterford — Norwich Free Academy cruised through the regular season.

Apparently Saturday's meet, the Eastern Connecticut Conference boys' track and field championship at Waterford High School, wasn't supposed to be easy. The ECC Large Division champion Wildcats were without junior Jawaun Johnson, who is no longer with the team, coach Matt Gitkind said. Johnson was last year's 100- and 200-meter champion at both the ECC and Class LL state levels.

"It's a big bummer he couldn't be with us, but we didn't see that as a death blow," said NFA senior Connor Gralton, who helped deliver the Wildcats to a championship, nonetheless. "We had to rethink our game plan. We could have had the win easy, but we just had to get the points somewhere else.

"We started as a setback, but we had the same mindset, 'We've got this 100 percent.'"

NFA finished with 136.5 points, outdistancing Fitch (109) and East Lyme (69). 

Gralton, headed for the University of Rhode Island next season, won the 1,600 meters in 4 minutes, 24.97 seconds and was third behind teammate Nick Fitch in the 800 (2:00.25).

The Wildcats also got clutch victories from Marcus Gates in the high jump (6 feet, 4 inches), freshman Jacob Slowik in the long jump (21-3.5) and J'Von Brown in the shot put (48-0). The Wildcats grabbed the lead from Fitch with 18 points in the 800 and 23 in the high jump.

"We came at a deficit. We projected we'd be down," Gitkind said. "We had to move guys into races they're not used to and ask them to rise to the occasion because this is what your team needs. They did a phenomenal job. We had two guys jump 6-4 in the high jump, a (personal record) for both those guys.

"We told them, 'Take care of your part of the track. You're part of a larger team.' ... (Still), jumps are very temperamental. You never know what's going to happen."

Gates' high jump win was followed by a second-place finish for teammate Brenden Sholes. NFA's Marquis Ward was fourth at 6-0.

"It was just confidence," Gates said.

Gralton, meanwhile, was deadlocked with Windham's Alex Korczynski with a lap to go in the 1,600 and finished the final 400 at an all-out sprint to outduel Korczynski by less than a second, 4:24.97-4:25.74. Gralton said he considered the race a must-win for his team.

"I was definitely confident. I was fresh. I had an idea of what I wanted to do," Gralton said. "That lap ... Maybe if he came on me, I would have been able to scrape (a little more). Alex is a great competitor."

Fitch is in his first year running outdoor track and he and Gralton have been able to push each other in races and in workouts.

"He's one of my best friends," Gralton said. "Hopefully when we get to states, we do what we did here."

Ledyard's Herman Winston was the only local double-winner, taking the 100 (11.25) and the 200 22.89. Stonington swept the hurdles, with Cam Whalen in the 110 hurdles (15.33) and Lincoln Robinson in the 300 (40.49).

Fitch's Brian Robinson won the discus (148-11), East Lyme's Josh Leffingwell the pole vault (13-6) and Ledyard's Collin Wiltshire the triple jump (42-1.5). Fitch's Patrick Scheurer was the runner-up in the 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles and javelin and teammate Tyric Scott was second in the long jump and triple jump.

v.fulkerson@theday.com