East Hartford — Tom Readett was in mid-sentence, retelling the story of how he lost precious seconds turning around to look behind him during Saturday's Class L state championship race, when suddenly he saw his mom Connie coming toward him. He rushed to give her an emotional hug.

“I don't like running the roads that much, so my mom has driven me everywhere,” said Readett, a Fitch High School junior who finished seventh in Class L in 17 minutes, 1 second.

“Also,” Readett said, addressing the emotion, “my grandfather (Richard Bock) was a really good runner, as well. I never got to meet him. This is the way I get to connect with him.”

Readett, who was 18th in last year's Class MM meet, qualified as an individual to compete in next Friday's State Open, also at Wickham Park. Readett was fifth in the recent Eastern Connecticut Conference meet.

Readett was clearly happy following the race, although he missed his target — running a sub-17:00 3.1-mile race — by one second. He tried to physically pick up teammate Mitchell Shapiro-Albert without much success.

Readett, a member of Fitch's highly acclaimed 4x800-meter relay team during the spring track season, described how he spun around to see who was behind him Saturday.

“I lost 10 seconds looking back,” Readett said. “It killed my vibe. About 1,000 people passed me. … My parents, my entire team's parents were yelling at me telling me what place I was in so I could make the Open.”

A near miss

Old Lyme's girls' team finished third in Class S with 101 points, just two points short of second-place Housatonic Regional. A second-place finish would have sent the entire lineup to the State Open. The Wildcats' top finisher was freshman Faith Caulkins, 13th in 21:18.

“We have 55 girls and boys; we're a good family,” said Old Lyme coach Barb O'Leary. “It's been an awesome season, a great group of kids. I think they joined the team for the pasta dinners. Billy Rayder and I coach together, so the girls run with the boys. They're so supportive of each other.

“We've had Emma (Pennie) first, we've had Anna (Sather) first, today Faith was first. We have such a good pack.”

Learning curve fit for a King

At the ECC meet, Ledyard junior Zak King was second in 17:29, 21 seconds behind champion Brandon Mehlinger of Norwich Free Academy. King let Mehlinger go out ahead of him and never caught up.

“I learned something new today,” King said. “I went out fast, so my kick wasn't as good, but I definitely ran a really good race.”

King never competed in sports of any kind before his freshman season at Ledyard, when he took up cross country.

“It was amazing seeing Bryce (Hedman, ECC champion) and the top guys, amazing the stuff they could do,” King said of his start in the sport.

King was then a part of Ledyard's Class M championship team last year, although he did not score, finishing as the Colonels' sixth man, 61st in 18:42.

All the while, he's been learning from coach Bill Billing, whose brother-in-law is former Boston Marathon winner Amby Burfoot and whose running experience is voluminous.

“You come to a meet like this and you see coaches, like, screaming at their guys,” King said. “(Billing) is very calm. He just tells us what to do. He's one of the best coaches.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com