Norwich — It was the morning of the Wickham Invitational earlier this month, considered a tuneup for the postseason, and Norwich Free Academy boys' cross country coach Chad Johnson was joined by a select few guys from his team in carrying a "600-pound tent" from the school to the team bus.

"Everybody was on the bus, drinking their lattes," said Johnson, who was steaming at the time, "waiting for other people to do stuff for them. And that's how they ran that day. ... I told them afterward that there ought to be 33 people offering to carry it, 33 people helping to pick somebody up when they fall."

The Wildcats received the message. Clearly.

NFA wasn't just OK in Thursday's Eastern Connecticut Conference championship meet at Norwich Golf Course. The Wildcats dominated.

NFA's Brandon Mehlinger, a senior, won the individual title over the 3.1-mile course in 17 minutes, 8 seconds and the Wildcats placed five of the top 16 runners to win the overall title for the fourth straight season. NFA scored 36 points to outdistance runner-up Lyman Memorial (75), Ledyard (90) and East Lyme (111).

Ledyard's Zak King was second (17:29), followed by NFA's Nick Fitch (17:34), Woodstock Academy's Max Chace (17:35) and Fitch's Tom Readett (17:38). Luke Shea (seventh), Vinny Huang (ninth) and Brenden Sholes (16th) rounded out NFA's top five.

Every single NFA runner who crossed the finish line did so with a rather determined look, too.

"We were pretty mad after the Wickham Invite," Shea said. "We saw all these other kids in the ECC doing well and we didn't do well."

"We gave people hope at Wickham," Fitch said of the Wildcats' opponents.

Johnson said it took a couple of days for his runners to mull over his words. In addition to the incident before they even left school, the Wildcats were 11th in the championship race later that day, a result which wasn't going to cut it if the team wanted to reach its goals in the postseason.

"It's tough," Mehlinger said. "You never want to disappoint coach. He's trying to help us. And I can't just think about myself, I've got to think about these guys, too; we've got to hold each other accountable. It's tough love. You've just got to listen."

"It was the mindset of the team during the race and this morning on the bus and on the course walk beforehand. That was lesson No. 1. You can't just show up," Johnson said. "I think they were mad. They haven't lost a meet in four years and they wanted to show today there was no way that was happening. They had a chip on their shoulder."

Interestingly, Johnson then paid his team the ultimate compliment when talking about the possibility of his 13-year-old son, Elliott, joining the team as a freshman next year.

"He's not a big runner," Johnson said. "But I want him to be on the team because these are who I want his friends to be. ... I've been very fortunate since I took over. We've had great leadership for years and years and years."

Johnson said he was confident in Mehlinger, more confident than he usually is in the individual outcome of an ECC meet. Mehlinger followed 2015 champion Connor Gralton, also from NFA.

"My former coach (Alden Miner of NFA) told me, 'Don't let anybody take away what you worked so hard for,'" Johnson said. "There was no way (Mehlinger) was going to let anyone take that away from him."

Mehlinger said the pace started out slowly and, wanting to push the tempo, he took the lead from Chace at about 1,000 meters. He never looked behind him to assess his lead.

"I like that not knowing," Mehlinger said. "That way, mentally, you've got to keep pushing. You never run a cross country race and want to be relaxed. ... This was pretty special, to win our fourth straight ECC."

Ledyard's King, meanwhile, was 26th in last year's race in 18:40, improving his time this year by well over a minute. King helps lead the Colonels into next week's state meet. Ledyard is the defending Class M state champion.

"I made the moves where I was supposed to. (Mehlinger) is tough. The pace was pretty conservative, but he didn't slow down at all. The last 30 seconds, I thought I made up some ground, but it was too late," King said. "... I felt really good."

v.fulkerson@theday.com