Second Place for Strauss and Guardians

[Brooke Strauss (left) finished second at the Class LL state cross-country championships last week. On the right, Crawford Cauthen was the first GHS runner to finish in the boy’s race, placing 24th.
  
The girls cross-country team at Glastonbury High School finished second overall at the Class LL state championship and junior Brooke Strauss finished as the runner-up individually. 

Strauss crossed the finish line with a time of 19:05, placing behind only Esme Daplyn — a senior from Greenwich High School.

After leading in the early stages of the race, Strauss had eyed a first place finish before Daplyn overtook the lead on her way to an individual title with a time of 18:53. 
 
“Each race you learn something,” Strauss said following the grueling 3.1 miles course. “I had high expectations going into it, but it was super tough and everyone is working hard trying to battle.”

Head coach Brian Collins stated that Strauss, last year’s State Open champion, has grown as a competitor. 
 
“She’s taken it to another level this year. Maybe today she got out too fast, but Brooke has continued to train well and done well,” added Collins. 

It was a double dip for Greenwich, which also won the event overall as a team, placing three runners in the top 10 spots and five runners in the top 20.

The efforts of the Cardinals from Greenwich were too much for the Guardians, who were seeking a third straight state championship after winning the Class LL title in both 2021 and 2022. 

“The team was as ready as we could be at this point,” said Collins. “The girls ran the best they could today, but hats off to Greenwich, they ran a great race. What they did from top to bottom was phenomenal –– we would have had to have had a great race to beat them.”

The Class LL cross-country championships were originally slated for Saturday, Oct. 28 and the other five divisions (Class S, Class SS, Class M, Class MM, and Class L) were completed as scheduled, but concerns over heat and proper medical personnel in Manchester forced the delay of the Class LL races — moving it to last Tuesday. 

The temperatures on Tuesday were much cooler, yet the course was still slow due to the extreme amounts of precipitation that have hit Connecticut in recent months. 

Strauss said the course was “treacherous” in spots, adding “It was a little tough…you can’t think about running super-fast, you just have to think about making it through.”

Despite not bringing home a championship banner for the third straight season, the Guardians again shined at the event, besting 13 other teams. 

Sophomore Abigail Mathew was the second GHS runner to cross the finish line, placing 11th with a time of 20:07 and her top-12 finish secured her a spot on the All-State team, along with Strauss.

Mathew’s time was 40 seconds faster than her conference championship time at the same venue from a few weeks earlier and Collins said the speedy sophomore has continued to impress with each passing meet, adding “hopefully this is a breakthrough race for her.”

Lila Garbett (15th / 20:42), Jackie Dudus (16th / 20:46), Olivia McKay (27th / 21:30), Ava Gattinella (28th / 21:33) and Maya Drelichowski (54th / 23:07) rounded out the GHS runners that participated in the multi-school events, which featured 99 total runners that finished. 

Collins added that the program’s three-year run, which includes a State Open championship in 2022, is a credit to the current group of runners and the legacy left by the last two graduating classes.  

On the boy’s side, sophomore Crawford Cauthen led the Guardians by placing 24th overall with a time of 17:11. Cauthen’s time was the third-fastest run by an underclassman. 

“It was really muddy, it was tough to get around people,” Crawford said of the course. “I felt really good, but I did not push myself enough.”

As a freshman a season ago, Crawford finished 50th with a time of 17:50.

​He credited his training in the offseason, allowing him more strength on the hills, along with improving both “mentally and physically” that enabled him to shoot up the leaderboards and knock 40 seconds off his 2022 time.