Norwich — It was the day East Lyme’s Sean McCauley was going to, perhaps, play things conservatively after coming off an Achilles injury. The Eastern Connecticut Conference boys’ cross country championship Thursday was only his fourth meet of the season.

Then, McCauley took off on the backstretch of the 3.1-mile path at Norwich Golf Course, winning the meet in 16 minutes, 29 seconds.

“I was just trying to wait, just keep waiting and waiting until I thought it was the right time to go and I went,” said McCauley, a junior. “And once you go like that, you can’t turn back, you’ve just got to go. So that’s what I did. I just tried to finish strong.”

McCauley outkicked Griswold freshman Tycen LaBelle (2nd, 16:39) and Woodstock Academy junior Christian Menounos (3rd, 16:44) to earn the victory. East Lyme placed five finishers in the top nine to comfortably win its sixth straight team total with a blistering 27 points.

Ledyard was second with 86 points, followed by Fitch (88), Norwich Free Academy (91) and Woodstock (102).

East Lyme’s Jilali Benjdid was fourth (16:58), Sam Leone fifth (17:04), Matthew Carrier eighth (17:18) and Nathan Bergman ninth (17:24).

“We had even talked at one point of sitting him out of this if we need to because our goals are the state meet and the Open and hopefully New Englands, we’re going to need him,” East Lyme coach Mike Flynn said of McCauley.

“I thought he would feel flat. I told him use your best judgment. If you feel good, go for it. If you need to be reserved, then that’s fine. I just don’t think he has it in him; he’s not going to do anything dumb but he’s not going to let other people beat him.”

Flynn, whose team is the defending Class MM champion and hopes to finish in the top six at the State Open to earn a berth at the New Englands, said that McCauley “loves running more than anybody I’ve ever coached.”

McCauley was also buoyed by the presence of his brother Ryan, a member of East Lyme’s 2017 state championship cross country team.

“He ran for East Lyme, he’s won ECCs, he’s won states with East Lyme, so it’s really cool to see him back here watching me do the same thing for my team,” Sean McCauley said. “He composes me very nicely. Him being here makes me happy and calm.”

The back half of the course at Norwich is a loop, going out and back to the finish line. It’s, for the most part, away from the throngs of spectators and a time Flynn told McCauley he might want to make his move if he felt up to it.

That’s where he got away from LaBelle and Menounos.

McCauley was third in last year’s ECC race, with Menounos fourth.

“Going to be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect being a freshman coming from a small school,” said LaBelle, who won the middle school state track championship in the spring in the 1,600 meters (4:31) while running for Preston Plains.

Griswold is the defending Class SS state champion but graduated the Strain triplets, Michael, Jacob and Lucas, as well as No. 4 runner Jackson Collins.

LaBelle seems to be next in line, however, starting his career in middle school. He called the Norwich course “the most grueling one I’ve run on, at least for a very long time.”

“About maybe at mile two-and-a-half, (McCauley) started to get ahead of me and Christian,” LaBelle said. “The three of us kept a very good pack for quite a long time. I wasn’t expecting to do as well as I did.”

Rounding out the top 10 were Fitch’s Julien Silva (6th, 17:08), Woodstock’s Colton Sallum (7th, 17:13) and Ledyard’s Jackson Hill (10th, 17:30).

East Lyme (Division I), Ledyard (Division II), Montville (Division III) and Wheeler (Division IV) all wrapped up ECC titles. Montville tied with Lyman Memorial atop the Division III standings Thursday with 46 points (St. Bernard was third with 47), thus claiming the division by virtue of its regular-season win over Lyman.

Meanwhile, Flynn calls this East Lyme team, which also included Mason Hintze (17th) and Kai Ritz (29th) “so good and so committed.”

“We’ve been really working day in and day out for the past year,” Benjdid said of East Lyme. “We knew last year that we really had something and right now we’re really trying to put it to use. I feel like we’re all there together.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

2023 ECC Boys’ Cross Country Championships

At Norwich Golf Course (5k)

Team Results

1. East Lyme, 27; 2. Ledyard, 86; 3. Fitch, 88; 4. NFA, 91; 5. Woodstock, 102; 6. Griswold, 178; 7. St. Bernard, 246; 8. Montville, 261; 9. Lyman Memorial, 270; 10. Waterford, 273; 11. Wheeler, 304; 12. Bacon Academy, 318; 13. Windham, 380; 14. Plainfield, 385; 15. Killingly, 397.

Individual Top 50

1. Sean McCauley (East Lyme), 16:29; 2. Tycen LaBelle (Griswold), 16:39; 3. Christian Menounos (Woodstock), 16:44; 4. Jilali Benjdid (East Lyme), 16:58; 5. Sam Leone (East Lyme), 17:04; 6. Julien Silva (Fitch), 17:08; 7. Colton Sallum (Woodstock), 17:13; 8. Matthew Carter (East Lyme), 17:18; 9. Nathan Bergman (East Lyme), 17:24; 10. Jackson Hill (Ledyard), 17:30; 11. Colin Britner (St. Bernard), 17:32; 12. Patrick Croughwell (NFA), 17:40; 13. Ryan Dunning (Fitch), 17:42; 14. Jesse Croteau (NFA), 17:43; 15. Hayden Baber (Ledyard), 17:51; 16. Gabriel Huff (Ledyard), 17:59; 17. Mason Hintze (East Lyme), 18:01; 18. Kaiden Chandler (Fitch), 18:04; 19. Nicholas DeBartolo (NFA), 18:04; 20. Antonio Soldato (Ledyard), 18:06; 21. Charles Caggiano (Woodstock), 18;17; 22. Robinson Meuse (NFA), 18:21; 23. Evan Vitagliano (Fitch), 18:25; 24. Anthony DeBartolo (NFA), 18:26; 25. Steven Ives (Ledyard), 18:32;

26. Joel Koelszar (Woodstock), 18:35; 27. Owen Muench (NFA), 18;36; 28. Shea Cahill (Fitch), 18:45; 29. Kai Ritz (East Lyme), 18:46; 30. Lucas Dellacono (St. Bernard). 18:56; 31. Kellen Johnson (Lyman), 18:59; 32. Dylan Bailey (Griswold), 19:02; 33. Trevor Scarchilli (Wheeler), 19:04; 34. Brady deCastro (Stonington), 19:13; 35. Gregory Bourdon (NFA), 19:30; 36. Greyson Stephenson (Ledyard), 19:23; 37. Jack Brehler (Montville), 19:23; 38. Kai Gordon (Fitch), 19:33; 39. Owen Pothier (Plainfield), 19:35; 40. Alexander Joseph (Montville), 19:27; 41. Titus Olson (Waterford), 19:37; 42. Jacob Parke Widlick (Ledyard), 19:38; 43. Jay Zimmerman (Waterford), 19:41; 44. Michael Dickey (Bacon), 19:41; 45. Sean Silva (Griswold), 19:49; 46. Harrison Durand (Woodstock), 19:56; 47. Nathan Dhillon (Montville), 20:07; 48. Ian McClain (Bacon), 20:12; 49. Bronso Eddy (Woodstock), 20:22; 50. Maxwell Brown (Griswold), 20:23.