By Steve Bigham

C

oach Marsha Caine can often be seen running with her Newtown High School girls’ cross-country team during practice. A runner herself, she enjoys the normal give and take between she and her athletes.

“I know how they feel out there,” said Caine, an NHS chemistry/biology teacher.

And the second-year coach hopes her hands-on approach will help her squad prepare for the upcoming season. Caine is also in training. She plans to run in the Chicago Marathon in October.

This year, the coach will be pushing a talented group of runners who appear to have the talent and depth to improve on last season’s 9-6 finish, which was good enough for sixth-place in the South West Conference out of 15 teams.

But there are only five returning runners. Nine girls are new to the team and Caine is still unsure who her top five runners are.

The good news is the newcomers have shown they can compete, which should give their coach more options come meet time.

“We have runners this year. They’re not just people doing the sport,” Caine remarked. “There were meets last year when we could only put in seven runners, while other teams were running 15.”

Leading the way will be senior tri-captains Erin Kostecki, Tracy Ravetto and Jessica Snow.

As a junior, Kostecki finished 10th at the SWC meet. She beat several runners from other schools who had defeated her earlier in the season. She looks to build on those results this time around. Kostecki predicted the 2000 Nighthawks will be stronger than they were a year ago.

Ravetto looks to return to the success she had as a sophomore when she finished eighth at SWCs, took 13th at the CIAC Class L state meet and qualified for the State Open. Any attempts at a repeat performance last year were thwarted by a late-season leg injury.

Snow finished 49th at last year’s SWC meet and looks to make a big move up the ladder.

Caine is excited about the potential of junior newcomer Angela Shannon, an ex-soccer player who looks to be a factor on the cross-country circuit. Returning juniors with experience are Whitney Blanchard and Monica Zigman. Two more juniors, Melanie Murphy and Erin Dennen will also make an impact, as will sophomore Christine Manfredonia.

Caine expects to have a clearer picture of her squad following the upcoming “pucker-up” preseason matchup with Brookfield.