Sam Whittaker of East Lyme High School and Mady Whittaker of Montville, cousins, have the opportunity to do something no one in the Eastern Connecticut Conference has done for quite some time.

The Whittakers, both the defending ECC cross country champions, can repeat at Thursday's conference meet at Norwich Golf Club (3 p.m. girls, 3:35 p.m. boys). There has not been a repeat champion since 2004-05 for the boys, when Griswold's Tradelle Ward accomplished that feat, and since 2005-06 for the girls, when it was recorded by Griswold's Shelby Donahue.

Sam Whittaker won the 5,000-meter boys' race a year ago in 17 minutes, 12 seconds, while Mady took the girls' crown in 20:25.

Sam led East Lyme to the overall team championship with 43 points and the Vikings went on to win the Class MM championship. The Vikings, 10-0 in dual meets this season, return four of their top five from that team, including Chris Abbey (sixth in the ECC last season), Fisher Macklin (12th) and Noah Barnhart (17th).

Mady, meanwhile, went on to finish fifth in Class SS and 16th in the State Open to qualify for the New England championship, where she ran a personal best 19:47.7.

Both Whittakers were named The Day's 2017 All-Area Runners of the Year in their respective sports.

East Lyme was the girls' team champion last season, beating Norwich Free Academy 47-76. The Vikings are 9-0 this season.