Manchester – Rarely has a runner been more aptly named than Chase Gilbert, especially this fall when most girls’ high school cross country participants in Connecticut have found themselves chasing Gilbert.

They chased her at the Shoreline Conference championships. They chased her at the Class S championships. And most of them were even left to chase her at the granddaddy of them all, Friday’s State Open at stately Wickham Park.

Gilbert, a freshman at Old Lyme, was ecstatic with her third-place finish, hugging various family members not long after finishing in the sunny weather.

“I'm very happy,” Gilbert said. “I knew there were so many fast runners and I just want to as fast as I could and run a smart race. It ended up how I wanted.”

Gilbert finished in 19 minutes, 12 seconds, tying her personal best at Wickham, the home office for cross country in Connecticut. Gilbert also won the Girls’ Small School race at the Wickham Invitational on Oct. 8 (in 19:19) and won the Class S race last week in 19:12.

“Running the course the other times helped give me familiarity with where I should be,” she said. “Obviously the hills, too. Just give it what you have in the tank. Know where to increase your stride and your cadence. And I think that helped form a more smart race.”

Brooke Strauss of Glastonbury won the race in 19:05 followed by Kathryn Marchand of Trumbull in 19:11. Strauss led the Guardians to the team title with 65 points.

“At the beginning of the race, everybody was getting out, so we were in a very large clump the first mile,” Gilbert said. “Then it kind of separated out to where there were two ahead of me after the first mile. It was pretty consistent. We were pretty close all together at one point.”

Eastern Connecticut Conference champion Avery Maiese of Waterford also ran at outstanding race, finishing 14th overall in 19:49. As top 25 finishers, Gilbert and Maiese qualified for next Saturday’s New England Championships at Ponaganset High School in North Scituate, R.I.

East Lyme’s Kennedy Holsapple was the region’s other top 50 finisher, completing the 5,000-meter course in 21:00 to place 49th.

In the boys’ race that followed, a pair of local runners qualified for the New England meet with top 25 finishes. ECC champion Ryan Gruczka of Stonington finished ninth in 16:23 and East Lyme’s Brendan Fant was 18th in 16:38. Other local top 50 finishers were the Vikings’ Sean McCauley in 40th (17:02) and Bacon Academy’s Ryan Moores in 47th (17:14).

East Lyme, which won the Class MM state title a week ago, just missed out on earning a trip to the New England meet. The top six teams qualified and the Vikings finished seventh with 252 points. Hall won the team title with 86 and Ridgefield’s Steven Hergenrother was the individual champ in 15:42.

m.dimauro@theday