Manchester — East Lyme’s Sean McCauley was pointing out the difficulty of the opposition Thursday at the State Open boys’ cross country championship.

“I think it went pretty well,” McCauley said. “There’s a lot of talented people in this field.”

The Ridgefield boys, for instance, ran the fastest team time ever on the 5,000-meter course at Wickham Park in 1 hour, 20 minutes, 30 seconds. So the fact that East Lyme ran it Thursday in a combined 1:21.00, the third-fastest team time in course history, is an accomplishment in itself.

Ridgefield edged the Vikings 43-63 for the team title, with both advancing to the New England championship next week back at Wickham.

“I would not say it’s a disappointment at all because we could not have run any better,” East Lyme’s Sam Leone said. “We ran much better than last week and that’s our best we could have run. Ridgefield is just great competition. We’re definitely trying to keep the success up and go as far as we can get.

“(Coach Mike Flynn) was very happy. He stressed there was nothing we could do. Ridgefield is just a crazy good team.”

McCauley was fourth individually on an unseasonably hot day at Wickham — which forced the start time to be moved to 10 a.m. — in 15:46, with Leone 10th in 16:07. Also for East Lyme, Jack Faitsch was 22nd (16:19), Matthew Carrier 23rd (16:19) and Jilali Benjdid 26th (16:29).

Soheib Dissa of Newtown won the individual title in 15:24. Locals Tycen LaBelle of Griswold (5th, 15:47) and Patrick Croughwell of Norwich Free Academy (19th, 16:16) also qualified for the New England meet by finishing in the top 25.

“They literally ran the fastest team time ever here and we ran the third-fastest,” Flynn said. “You can’t do any more than that. We were well aware of how good Ridgefield is. They just never show their cards until the end of the season. We knew how great they were. At least we made them work.”

Ridgefield won the Class LL state championship last week, while East Lyme won its third straight Class MM crown and its sixth in the last seven state meets. The previous best team time at Wickham was 1:20:56, set by Ridgefield at last year’s State Open.

Meanwhile, in the girls’ race, individual accolades went to Glastonbury’s Brooke Strauss in 18:19, leading the Guardians to the team title as well by beating out Mercy 62-145.

With Strauss one of a handful of runners in the lead pack halfway through the race, she pulled ahead by the finish line, ascending the final hill 15 seconds ahead of her closest competitor in Liv Sherry of Conard.

Old Lyme’s Chase Gilbert was third in 18:39, Lyman Memorial’s Hazel DeLucia eighth in 19:01 and NFA’s Karina Chan 11th in 19:15, all qualifying for New Englands.

While it wasn’t exactly the result Gilbert was hoping for — she owns the fastest 5K in the state this season in 17:43.1 — she handled the outcome graciously, aware that she missed last year’s race entirely due to a hip injury.

Much like McCauley did, Gilbert extended her congratulations to Strauss for topping the field.

“I definitely will be thinking about this and making my opinion on this in the next couple days,” said Gilbert, who is the three-time Class S state champion. “Initial disappointment, but I need to recognize that I wasn’t here last year and I was really wanting to be here last year. I think last year I would have been very much happier getting third than not doing it at all.

“... (Strauss) was getting a little bit on me about a mile to go, then that just extended. I’m very happy for her. She’s in incredible shape right now. I’m just really proud of her. And I’m very excited for a little do-over (at the New England meet) in 10 days. It will be a lot colder.”

In somewhat of a coincidence, DeLucia, the two-time Eastern Connecticut Conference champion from Lyman Memorial and Gilbert, the three-time Shoreline Conference winner, roomed together two summers ago at Northeast Kingdom Running Camp in Vermont and became friends.

Both are juniors and suffered hip injuries which hobbled them at the end of last cross country season and sidelined them for all of indoor track.

The two have grown up in the cross country spotlight together and are now among the state’s most respected runners.

“They’re phenomenal,” DeLucia said of the other frontrunners in Thursday’s race. “I think everybody was affected by the heat. I’ve very happy with my pace and I’m happy I get another chance to run an even better time next week.”

DeLucia said prior to their sophomore seasons, she, Gilbert and Anna Vlieks of Hand, who was 15th in the Open, roomed together at camp. She said she and Gilbert “text kind of a lot.”

“Definitely, the more you grow in the sport, the more you know,” DeLucia said of her appreciation of the sport and her gratitude for being healthy again, “and honestly the more confident you feel, too.”

“She’s just super awesome, super supportive,” Gilbert said of DeLucia. “I love being friends with her. I’m so happy she made this amazing progression.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

CIAC State Open

At Wickham Park, Manchester

Boys

Team scores

1. Ridgefield 43, 2. East Lyme 63, 3. E.O. Smith 152, 4. Staples 167, 5. Xavier 182, 6. Danbury 215, 7. Hall 219, 8. NFA 226, 9. Greenwich 258, 10. New Canaan 262.

Other local teams

18. Griswold 411.

Top 10 finishers

1. Soheib Dissa (Newtown), 15:24; 2. Luke Cushing (Amity), 15:42; 3. Magnus Manley (Ridgefield), 15:44; 4. Sean McCauley (East Lyme), 15:46; 5. Tycen LaBelle (Griswold), 15:47; 6. Charles Lovett (Ridgefield), 15:55; 7. Spencer Slayton (E.O. Smith), 15:55; 8. Samuel Zwick-Lavinsky (Staples), 15:56; 9. Evan Bureau (Bethel), 16:05; 10. Sam Leone (East Lyme), 16:07.

Other local finishers

19. Patrick Croughwell (NFA), 16:16; 22. Jack Faitsch (East Lyme), 16:19; 18. Matthew Carrier (East Lyme), 16:19; 26. Jilali Benjdid (East Lyme), 16:29; 33. Julien Silva (Fitch), 16:39; 43. Anthony DeBartolo (NFA), 16:52; 63. Jesse Croteau (NFA), 17:08; 68. Evan Vitagliano (Fitch), 17:10; 80. Jack Dempsey (NFA), 17:20; 100. Kyle Kornacki (NFA), 17:33; 107. Joey Papalia (East Lyme), 17:36; 116. Dylan Johnson (East Lyme), 17:41; 133. Dylan Bailey (Griswold), 17:54; 137. Antonio Soldato (Ledyard), 17:56; 141. Sean Silva (Griswold), 18:01; 147. Xzavier De La Rosa (Griswold), 18:12; 150. Robinson Meuse (NFA), 18:15; 155. Owen Muench (NFA), 18:18; 171. Dylan Marchand (Griswold), 18:50; 184. Cole Fontaine (Griswold), 19:55; 190. Sam Gilgenbach (Griswold), 21:04.

Girls

Team scores

1. Glastonbury 62, 2. Mercy 145, 3. Greenwich 173, 4. New Fairfield 196, 5. Haddam-Killingworth 224, 6. New Milford 251, 7. Ridgefield 270, 8. Simsbury 274, 9. Trumbull 281, 10. Hall 291.

Local team

18. Lyman Memorial 349.

Top 10 finishers

1. Brooke Strauss (Glastonbury), 18:19; 2. Liv Sherry (Conard), 18:34; 3. Chase Gilbert (Old Lyme), 18:39; 4. Tess Sherry (Conard), 18:48; 5. Lauren Parrett (Glastonbury), 18:52; 6. Sophie Passalacqua (Greenwich), 18:54; 7. Katie McMorrow (New Fairfield), 18:56; 8. Hazel DeLucia (Lyman Memorial), 19:01; 9. Sophie Spelman (Fairfield Warde), 19:11; 10. Alexandra Morgan (Fairfield Warde), 19:11.

Other local finishers

11. Karina Chan (NFA), 19:15; 27. Avery Maiese (Waterford), 20:06; 46. Maggie Littler (Ledyard), 20:49; 52. Lauren Fulcher (East Lyme), 20:54; 53. Kaitlyn Sweeney (Ledyard), 20:55; 54. Molly Musselman (Stonington), 20:55; 70. Elisabeth Person (Lyman Memorial), 21:10; 92. Helena Coury (St. Bernard), 21:30; 135. Peyton Vanderstreet (Stonington), 22:27; 136. Sylvie Hiltz (Lyman Memorial), 22:29; 154. Nora Johnson (Lyman Memorial), 22:53; 158. Luci Gardella (Lyman Memorial), 23:05; 179. Kayla Osga (Lyman Memorial), 24:01; 187. Hannah Bower (Lyman Memorial), 24:26.