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By Steve Bigham

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By Steve Bigham

STRATFORD - The biggest sports story early on at Newtown High School this year may be the strength of the girls’ cross country team. The squad appears to have all the ingredients of a champion.

And that was apparent Wednesday afternoon as the Nighthawks took the first eight spots to easily defeat Weston, Bunnell and Stratford. The meet, hosted by Bunnell, was held on the newly created 2.5-mile course in the very wooded Roosevelt Forest.

Newtown - now 6-0 on the season - also fared well at last Saturday’s Wilton Invitational, finishing 7th out of 15 teams.

Prior to the season, Coach Marsha Caine had reason to be optimistic as Erin Kostecki and Tracy Ravetto, last season’s top two runners, were back for their senior seasons. Then, along came junior Angela Shannon, who had started the fall season on the NHS soccer team before deciding to switch sports at the last minute. On Wednesday, Shannon finished second overall, just five seconds behind South-West Conference (SWC) standout Kostecki, who broke a course record with her time of 17:25.

Shannon, who finished in a time of 17:30 was also impressive at the Wilton Invitational, crossing the line in 28th place out of 100 runners, second among Newtown runners behind Kostecki. Indeed, the soccer program’s loss has been the cross country club’s gain.

“I always knew I had good endurance, but I didn’t realize I could do this,” Shannon said following Wednesday’s race. “I went from JV soccer to this. I’m really having fun.”

“She’s just huge for us,” said Caine, who is also blessed to have Christine Manfredonia, who finished third overall on Wednesday. The sophomore newcomer, who may be the biggest surprise of all, crossed the line in 17:58.

Rounding out Newtown’s top five were Ravetto (18:01) and Jessica Snow (18:42).

Also running well for Newtown were Melanie Murphy (18:43), Sarah Macknight (18:48) and Monica Zigman (19:01), who finished sixth, seventh and eighth overall.

“The whole team is running a minute faster than last year,” said Caine, whose squad finished sixth out of 15 teams at the SWC postseason meet.

Shannon, a cheerleader in the winter and lacrosse player in the spring, began the season hoping to land a spot on the varsity soccer team. But when that didn’t happen, she and classmate Jen Russell decided to try cross country.

“Jen knew Coach Caine from track, so we went and asked if it was okay for us to go out for the team,” Shannon recalled. “She said, ‘sure, I love ex-soccer players.’”

Right away, it was clear that both runners had the potential to make a big impact, although Russell was sidelined early on with a case of appendicitis. Russell, running her first race of the season Wednesday, finished 15th overall.

Meanwhile, Kostecki has picked up where she left off last season when she finished 10th at the SWCs.

 Newtown, now 6-0, heads to New Milford next week to face New Milford, Notre Dame and Lauralton Hall.

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