BETHEL — With an end goal of being championship-ready when the mid-October South-West Conference meet is held, Newtown High School’s boys’ cross country team treated its regular season meet at Bethel High as a training day on September 17. After all, several team members were sidelined with illness and injury bugs the week before, and their workout regiment was off.

Newtown team members ran hard before the meet, then competed knowing they were likely to lose to Bethel but could still defeat Bunnell of Stratford and Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport. That is exactly what happened; the Nighthawks, who still managed three finishers among the top ten, lost the battle with hopes of being in better position to win the war when that championship race comes around.

“We’re still playing catchup from the injury bug and illness bug last week. Today was just a training day. We’re just trying to get right because we’re so far behind from last week,” Newtown Coach Carl Strait said.

The team has less than a week to prepare for its next competition, the Winding Trails Invitational, set for Saturday, September 21, in Farmington.

Newtown was beaten by Bethel 20-35, but defeated Bunnell 25-35, and Kolbe 15-50.

Andrew Poseno was Newtown’s fastest finisher and placed sixth overall in a time of 19:11.94. Will Tainter-Gilbert was eighth in 19:38.96, Aidan Budge ninth in 19:42.33, and Nick Jacobs tenth in 19:46.87. Dan Sibley came in 12th in 19:57.51 and Max Hanson was 13th in a time of 20:02.20. Bethel’s Robert Doyle was first in 18:15.61.

In the girls’ meet, Newtown defeated all three opponents, including a competitive race with Bethel in which the Nighthawks won 24-33. NHS also bested Bunnell and Kolbe each by 15-50 scores.

Bethel’s Ava Graham was first in 19:26.89, and the Wildcats had three more runners in the top ten. Newtown, however, had seven finishers in the top ten. Rylee Harrell was second in 21:23.73, Emily Tressler third in 21:31.68, and Maddie Fetchick fourth in 21:39.95. Hallie Filan came in seventh in a time of 22:38.02, Courtney Henchcliffe was eighth in 22:49.91, and Gloria Rowley placed tenth in 23:40.29. NHS also had the next three finishers: Chloe Karnas in 23:42.41, Emily Litke in 23:48.50, and Laura Wong in 24:04.08.

“I love racing at Bethel. It gets us ready for postseason,” said Newtown Coach Christina Caron, whose team will be back at the Bethel course for the big meet on October 16.