Norwich — If nothing else, Connor Gralton's story is about resilience. And that losing isn't necessarily detrimental.

Gralton, the lead runner at Norwich Free Academy, found himself finishing behind Ledyard's Bryce Hedman last weekend at the Wickham Invitational.

Cue a reality check.

"You think you're on top of the world until you taste defeat," a far happier Gralton said Thursday.

That's because he won the Eastern Connecticut Conference boys' cross country championship race at Norwich Golf Course in 16 minutes, 41 seconds. Gralton led the Wildcats to the Large Division title.

Hedman was second in 16:53 over the 5K course. Griffin Waller (Bacon Academy), Jonathan Cabral (St. Bernard) and Jesus Osuba (Windham) made the top five.

NFA amassed 75 points, defeating Woodstock (109), Bacon Academy (139), Ledyard (150) and Griswold (160).

"Before that race, I wasn't taking it seriously," Gralton said. "I didn't exactly listen to coach (Chad Johnson) as much as I should have. I started working harder, focused on what I ate, did everything I could."

It was barely enough. Hedman had a decent lead for much of Thursday's race.

"I've never seen that much improvement," Gralton said of Hedman. "I'm blown away."

Johnson, a former NFA great, wasn't so sure Saturday's lesson clicked until, in Johnson's words, "there were 400 meters to go" Thursday.

"Even two days ago after we told the guys to watch themselves even running to get the newspaper," Johnson said. "He fell on his butt and hurt is tailbone playing around on a scooter. But he's had a lot of success throughout his career and when you have a lot of success, you want to keep doing what you've been doing."

Johnson was yelling words of encouragement to his protege with whom he might have formed a bond because of Wickham.

"At the Wickham meet, people who aren't runners might say he had a bad day," Johnson said. "I've been in those shoes. He knew during the first 1,000 he wasn't having a good day and gave up. I've done it. I think he realized I could call him out on it."

Gralton joined teammates Tyler Sholes, Normand Manning, William Strong, Niceforo Reyes, Brandon Mehlinger and Kyle Lunde in delivering the division title.

"I'm ecstatic," Johnson said. "It's a tough course and you need to run it tough. The guys were tough. You can't coach that. You can't coach toughness. You're either tough that day or you're not."

Bacon won the Medium Division and Griswold won the Small.

m.dimauro@theday.com