Cross Country Teams Take Aim At Postseason Success

By Andy Hutchison

Coming off a 13-0 season, Newtown High School’s boys’ cross country team has a lot to live up to in an effort to match last year’s winning ways. At the same time, however, there is some room for improvement and good reason for motivation. After all, the Nighthawks had a disappointing-considering-its-perfect-regular season third-place finish in the South-West Conference championships.

The Nighthawks did, however, also put together a nice run in the Class LL state championships to earn fifth place overall. The team was 12th in the State Open.

“We have strong chance of winning SWCs and finishing in the top six at State Opens to qualify for the New England Championships,” Coach Dave Foss said. “Our goal is to run competitively with any team we face this year. In addition, several individuals have the potential to earn some postseason awards, including all-conference, all-state, all-New England.”

Gone by way of graduation are Austin Baldour, David Klein, and Vinnie Brophy, all of whom will be missed. The good news is that plenty of experienced runners are back for the campaign.

Captains this year are seniors Dieter Gutbrod (seventh in SWCs last year), Palmer Lintz, Luke Piazza, and Pat Sullivan (sixth in SWCs). Other key runners are junior Jake Feinstein (third in SWCs, all-state), senior Jordan Hensel, junior Paul Mangiafico, sophomore Nate Steinebrey, and junior Rob Russo.

Strong competition within the SWC stands to come from Weston, New Fairfield, Pomperaug of Southbury (the top conference finisher at the State Open last year) and eight-time, defending SWC champ, New Milford.

“It has been awesome to finally meet with the team after being delayed because of Irene,” Foss said of the tropical storm that caused school to be closed and preseason practices to be canceled for several days. “The guys have been very enthusiastic to get this potentially excellent season going.”

NHS Girls

The Newtown High girls’ squad went 13-3 last year and finished fourth in the conference championship meet.

The Nighthawks lost a large number of seniors last year and four of them were in the top seven: Anne Martino, Mara Scallon, Dani Villa, and Emily Floros.

Newtown does retain a fair amount of strong runners, including captains Erin Begg, Katie Burns, and Meghan Condon.

Other runners whom Coach Doug Russell expects good things from are Jenny vanVeen, Alex Klein, Kristen DeGirolamo, Brianne Moulder, and Emily Ashbolt. Newcomers Reagan Cerney, a junior, and Hannah Schwartz, a freshman, look like they will be major contributors to the team, Russell says.

Some of the tough teams Newtown will come up against in the SWC are New Milford, Pomperaug, and Immaculate of Danbury. “The conference could be even more competitive this season because you never really know how other teams are going to do with new kids coming aboard,” said Russell, who will get a better feel for things once the season gets underway September 13 in Weston against the host Trojans, along with Joel Barlow of Redding and Bunnell of Stratford.

“We are excited about this season even though we got off to a unusual start with the storm causing us to be delayed. Of course we would like to do very well at SWCs, states, opens, and qualify for New Englands, and it could happen with hard work and commitment,” Russell said.

The girls and boys both host one meet when Bethel, New Fairfield, and Oxford visit the trails behind Reed School on September 20. The boys’ race is at 4:30 pm and the girls’ meet will take place at 5 pm.

The cross country squads, after their home competitions, each have four more regular season meets before the South-West Conference Championships, October 20 at Bethel High School.