BETHEL — Newtown High School’s girls’ and boys’ cross country teams both placed third in the South-West Conference championship meet, held at Bethel High School on October 17.

The conference’s pinnacle race took place a day after it was originally scheduled because of heavy rain, and the course remained soggy in spots.

Newtown’s girls earned 75 points to finish behind New Fairfield and Pomperaug of Southbury, both of which had 60 points based on the finishes of each school’s top five runners; New Fairfield had a faster sixth-place runner to earn the tiebreaker and officially claim first place.

New Fairfield’s Gabrielle Richini led the field in the 5K race with a time of 18:48.91. Newtown had the fifth- and sixth-fastest competitors as Erin Tressler and Sarah Mawdsley completed the course in 20:16.31 and 20:17.30, respectively. Teammate Emma Bayuk was 18th overall in a time of 22:03.86, Madison Findley was 21st in 22:13.45, and Hannah Schwartz came in 25th in 22:34.51. Kelsey Miller came in 29th in 22:41.97 and Camille Johnson placed 30th in 22:47.04 to cap off Newtown’s top seven.

In the boys’ race, New Milford was first with 44 points, Pomperaug placed second with 84, and Newtown finished with 101.

New Milford runner Stosh Davis was the first to cross the finish line, coming in with a time of 16:38.50. Newtown’s leading runners were all bunched together. The top five included Kyle Mangold in 17th with a time of 17:53.27, Christopher Gamble in 19th with a time of 18:00.72, Joel Duval in 20th with a time of 18:01.30, David Csordas in 22nd in 19:03.71, and Brendan Reeds right behind him in 23rd in a time of 18:05.06. The team’s top seven was rounded out by Ethan Burg in 30 with a time of 18:30.46 and Christian Lestic in 33rd with a time of 18:38.60.

For more coverage of the race, check out the October 24 print edition of The Bee.