LYME-OLD LYME–Jan Merrill-Morin—Olympian, world record holder, and Lyme-Old Lyme track and field coach—knows there will never be another girls team like this one.
Last Monday, a celebratory escort of police, fire and ambulance vehicles led the bus holding the returning CIAC (Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference) Class S state champions from the town limits to Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS).
On the bus were senior Zoe Eastman-Grossel with three first place medals, including a state record in the 300 hurdles; junior Chase Gilbert, who achieved triple crown status with wins in the 800 meter, 1600 meter and 3200 meter races; and prolific thrower junior Margaret Thuma, who took the gold in discus.
Merrill-Morin on Wednesday recalled the procession as “glorious.”
“You can’t critique that,” the longtime coach said. “It’s a moment in time.”
Merrill-Morin is in her second outdoor track season at the high school, where she focuses on distance running for both the boys and girls teams. Her husband, Jeff Morin, covers sprinting. Both carry decades of experience at the high school and college level.
“We will not probably ever enter this realm again like this,” Merrill-Morin said from the track fence on Wednesday. “So you take it – like I said, the moment in time – and you grab it. You grab right on.”
Eastman-Grossel, internalizing similar lessons learned from Morin, calls it “being where your feet are.”
That means living, running and hurdling in the moment, Eastman-Grossel said. It’s being OK with losing or not achieving a personal record with every meet. It’s letting your teammates have your back.
Despite a spine injury that relegated Eastman-Grossel to the YMCA elliptical machine and swimming pool for most of 2024, the sprinter returned to earn two medals at the Adidas Nationals in Virginia Beach this winter. She said the experience, combined with her new coaches, has changed her mindset when it comes to training.
She credited Morin with helping her hone her athleticism this season.
“He also helped me mentally with being where my feet are,” she said. “And not stressing so much about meets and times.”
For Merrill-Morin, that’s what life is: Moments measured not by a stopwatch but by grit and gratitude.
“My mother never had a stopwatch,” the Olympian recalled. “And she would say, ‘honey, do the best you can. Work hard.’ And no one can critique that.”
Intrinsic Motivation
From a camping chair set up on the track surface near the gate, Merrill-Morin on Wednesday could see Eastman-Grossel practicing sprints on a red, rubberized straightaway. Gilbert appeared and disappeared in wide loops around the campus. Out past the fence, Thuma threw with Amy Gonsalves, who coaches champions in track and crew.
Everyone’s sights were set on the state open event that would determine the best of the best from the CIAC’s five classes, which are determined by student size of schools (LOLHS is Class S.)
Like Eastman-Grossel, Gilbert is no stranger to injury. She had to take off eight weeks midway through her sophomore year when a weak glute muscle gave out.
Gilbert said the experience made her realize how lucky she is to be able to go out every day and push herself.
“I think it’s just, you know, appreciating the ability to train hard every day,” she said. “And just not taking things like that for granted, and putting the effort in on days where the effort’s required.”
Coach Alyssa Mercaldi, who has been at the school for five indoor track and three outdoor track seasons, said the girls’ intense focus sometimes requires coaches to remind them how much is too much.
“They’re so motivated and they want to do whatever it takes to get to their goals and their team goals,” she said. “And…sometimes you have to take it easy to achieve those goals. Going out there every day and running these crazy sprints and stuff does not always mean that you’re going to get faster.”
She said the Lyme-Old Lyme track and field approach differs from other similarly small schools in the Shoreline Athletic Conference, where fewer available students run more events to bring in the most points.
She said small schools often have athletes competing in up to four events.
“And that’s not our philosophy because that’s not what’s best for the athlete. It might look nice on paper for the team, but that’s a lot,” she said.
Merrill-Morin called it an “athlete before wins” approach.
The coaches said none of their athletes competed in four events at the conference championship last month. The team came in second place with 102 points to East Hampton’s 113.
At the state competition earlier that week, Eastman-Grossel and Gilbert each raced three and won three. Gilbert took the distance triple crown. Eastman-Grossel won the 100 meter race, set a state record in the 300 hurdles and went on to win the 200 meter race in what sports writers hailed as a remarkable feat in news reports across Connecticut.
Merrill-Morin attributed the two girls’ success to intrinsic motivation far, far beyond that of most high school athletes.
“They are intrinsically motivated like I was as an Olympian,” she said.
Morin, Eastman-Grossel’s coach, could not come up with another high school student in his coaching career who matched the sprinter’s physical and mental aptitude for running.
“There aren’t that many athletes that you have a chance to come across that have talent and have the desire to excel,” he said.
He said his wife is experiencing the same phenomenon on the distance side.
“Jan’s lucky right now to have Chase, you know, but after Chase is gone, when’s the next Chase coming along? Who knows,” he said. “When’s the next Zoe coming along here in Lyme-Old Lyme? Don’t know.”
A Cohesive Unit
Eastman-Grossel will don her graduation robe this week as the doors to Lyme-Old Lyme High School close and the gates to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis open. She was selected to become a midshipman and a member of the Division I track and field team as part of a grueling college experience that will culminate in eight years of military service.
She was hopeful her experience as an athlete will help her survive the notorious plebe experience designed to test the mental resolve of first year students.
“I feel like I’ll be prepared for that because, I don’t know, you just can’t quit,” she said. “I think any athlete is not a quitter.”
The sprinter anticipated her biggest challenge will be all the long distance running that midshipmen have to do.
Gilbert, who committed last week to the University of Virginia starting in the fall of 2026, offered her teammate advice on endurance.
“Just focus on the lap that you’re on,” she said.
Eastman-Grossel joked that Gilbert will be cheering for her from the academy’s gates.
“Oh, yeah, I’m coming to the gates,” Gilbert agreed. She said she won’t be allowed into the military installation, so she’ll cheer from the outside.
The back-and-forth between the girls represents the kind of team bonding that Merrill-Morin described as the overriding key to the team’s success.
She said promoting cohesion has been a focus since Mercaldi returned as outdoor track coach after taking a break the previous season.
“I think this year with Alyssa here, we’ve worked very hard to make it a fun, cohesive unit. We go out with the same type of talent, but do even better because during the season, we could practice together and get things done,” she said.
Freshman Maia Giusti was at the track Wednesday running laps with Gilbert even though she did not qualify for the state open event.
“My season’s technically done right now, but I want to come back, not just with Chase, but with the team for at least this last week,” she said.
She said she hopes to model the upperclassmen’s welcoming and supportive attitude next year when she’s no longer among the youngest athletes on the team.
Giusti described the pride and surprise she felt when she finished seventh in the 800 meter race at states, when the pain and her burning throat served as good indicators of how far she had pushed herself.
“But it was being pushed by Chase especially. She’s my biggest inspiration,” she said.
‘Behind the Scoreboard’
The team, by all accounts, has evolved over several years thanks to athletes and coaches with unusual resolve and a commitment not to let sports become an obligation.
“I feel like, a lot of times, we’re like, ‘just go out there and have fun,’” Mercaldi said. “’Do your best. Work as hard as you can. Show people how amazing you are on the track, and whatever happens, happens.’”
Eastman-Grossel and Gilbert know the success of the team isn’t just about their individual contributions to the overall score at each meet. It’s also about what everyone else lends to the team to create what Gilbert described as a “fun and exciting and hardworking” culture.
“I think there’s a lot more behind the scoreboard,” she said.
Morin on Wednesday said Eastman-Grossel would not be competing in the 300 hurdles at the state opens, despite being one of Connecticut’s best all-time hurdlers, because they want to make sure her back remains strong.
“I hope she can stay healthy, and not just for track and field,” he said. “I’d like to see her stay healthy as she goes through the rigors of being a naval cadet, which is going to be a heck of a challenge.”
Merrill-Morin, a competitive athlete for over a decade and a coach for almost 40 years, kept falling back Wednesday on the importance of encouraging respect for each fleeting victory that defines the girls on the track and off.
“This is a moment in time,” she reiterated before paraphrasing her overarching message to athletes: “You’re going to be out of high school in four years. So do the best you can. We’re going to hopefully give you the correct system and the work and the day-to-day tasks to do. But do the best you can.”
And sometimes, she said, a coach gets blessed by the kind of talent that comes around rarely, if ever.
Mercaldi marveled over the likelihood of having two athletes like Eastman-Grossel and Gilbert on the team at the same time.
“We’re lucky, the cards that we were dealt, and you just have to utilize them,” she said. “Because we’re not going to ever have a team like this ever again.”
Editor’s Note: At the State Open Girls Championship on June 7, Gilbert placed first in the 3200m race and second in the 1600m race. Eastman-Grossel placed second in the 100m and 200m dash. Both athletes qualified for the New England Championship meet on June 14. The girls led Lyme-Old Lyme High School to a fourth place finish in the meet.
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