Winning a championship is oh so sweet no matter what, but for some of the girls on Newtown High School’s South-West Conference champion track team, capturing the title was made all the more rewarding by what they went through to get to the pinnacle.

Never mind the hurdles on the track, a handful of the Nighthawks had to overcome different types of hurdles of sorts with injuries impacting their seasons.

With patience, hard work, cross-training, and stick-to-itiveness, these athletes overcame being sidelined and worked together with their teammates to win the title at Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven on February 5.

Riley Powers tore her meniscus and had surgery after the fall soccer season; she was able to join the track team on January 19, giving her just a few weeks to get into championship form. Ally McCarthy, also a soccer player, battled an Achilles strain which kept her out a majority of the track season. Elise Barricelli had back issues that kept her out until late in the campaign. Sophia Guevara battled Achilles and shin issues in the couple of weeks leading up to the start of postseason.

All four girls persevered and played key roles in the team triumph, running multiple events and scoring crucial points in leading to Newtown winning the crown.

Adjustments were made in order to qualify for postseason.

“They all went out to just qualify, not to run personal records. I just needed them to get to SWCs then we would figure it out,” Newtown Coach Becky Bourret said.

And the Nighthawks sure did figure things out by overcoming a Weston squad that had won the last eight championships. Newtown scored 85.33 points and Weston was second with 77.

Guevara and McCarthy were part of the first-place sprint medley relay team that finished in a time of 4:31.69; Powers was part of the second-place, school record-setting 4x800 relay that clocked in with a time of 9:59.65; Barricelli was part of the second-place 4x200 relay in 1:53.75; and McCarthy and Guevara helped the 4x400 come in second in 4:19.65. Barricelli was fourth in the 55 meter dash in 7.73 seconds; and Powers and Barricelli were third and fourth, respectively, in the 300 with times of 43.85 and 44.07; and McCarthy placed third in the 1000 in 3:11.09.

“Proud is an understatement. It’s hard to be injured all season and then not come in first or get [personal record times] when you know if you trained you could have won. These girls went into SWCs knowing they had a full day of running and the team just needed them to push and they did,” Bourret said.

As an example, McCarthy’s effort in the 1000 gave Newtown valuable team points but was not where the standout runner was hoping to be prior to the injury-riddled season. “Ally ran the 1000 last year much faster and was not in the shape she was in coming into this season. This was going to be her year. Some athletes would see this as a huge defeat or not want to run due to lower times, but she rallied and said, ‘I’ll do what I need to for my team,’ and she did,” Bourret said.

McCarthy ran a 3:02 in 2020 and a 3:08 during the altered coronavirus-impacted 2021 season. “Ideally she would have gone under 3 this season,” Bourret said. That would have won the event with time to spare as the top finisher came across the line in a time of 3:05.49.

But just getting to compete was a winning scenario, so not only putting their best feet forward under the circumstances, but also helping their team take the title made the taste of championship success even sweeter for this group of girls.

“We put a lot of time in cross-training, in the pool, on the bike, the elliptical machine, lifting weights,” McCarthy said of the recovery roads back from injuries. “That’s what made it all extra special.”

Powers was not sure how much time she would miss and was pleasantly surprised by the turnaround.

“I thought it was going to be a lot longer coming off the surgery,” she said.

That is not to say it was easy — by any stretch.

“It was definitely mentally and physically tough coming back into it,” Powers said.

Although injuries did slow the training — and ultimately speed in the championship — there was a silver lining to the setbacks, motivating everyone on the team to do their best to come out on top.

“The injuries helped not just the athletes who had them but also the athletes who had to step up. The ones that were injured are the kids that no matter what they fight they will push to win. I think going into outdoors these girls will be hungry for workouts and PRs,” said Bourret, referring to the outdoor spring track campaign.

These track athletes keep going with state competition; the Class LL State Championships will take place at Floyd Little Athletic Center on Friday, February 11. Some of Newtown’s runners who overcame injuries will not run individual events but instead will put their efforts into relays to help those squads be in the best positions to succeed, Bourret said.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.