BETHEL — Newtown High School’s girls’ and boys’ cross country teams took on fast conference runners and a tough Bethel High 5K course — featuring a steep hill known as The Beast — to a backdrop of impressive fall foliage in the South-West Conference Championships, on a 50-degree October 19 afternoon.

The NHS girls placed fourth and the boys were sixth; New Milford took first in both varsity races, but it was a stellar afternoon overall for the Newtown program.

“Considering we ran with all juniors and sophomores today I couldn’t be happier,” said Carl Strait, coach of the boys, who had the fourth-fastest overall finisher in Soheib Dissa in a time of 16:40.64 (New Milford’s Collin Walsh was first in 16:25.75 as the Green Wave had the top three and four of the fastest six among 94 participants.

“They knew he was good. Today they look at him as he’s a force to be reckoned with in the future. He’s a sophomore,” Strait said of Dissa, who previously ran track but is new to cross country this fall and quickly emerged as Newtown’s race pack leader.

All told, between the junior varsity and varsity races, the Nighthawks had 25 of 38 runners set personal records, Strait noted.

Noah Masotta came in 34th in 18:30.22, Stephen Sibley was 36th in 18:38.76, Andrew Arena was 43rd in 19:07.13, Evan Chaudhary 49th in 19:27.87, Henry Prout was 52nd in 19:46.82, and Oliver Clancy 54th with a time of 19:58.73.

Trevor Saunders led Newtown in the JV race with a PR time.

“It’s a great day for the kids and the program,” Strait said.

For the girls, New Milford’s Sydney Kelleher was the only runner to break 19 minutes, coming in at 18:59.41. Newtown’s Clara D’Amico finished in 14th in 21:05.97, Keira Budge was 17th in 21:28.17, Grace Chiriatti came in 23rd with a time of 22:04.46, Grace Lyons was 24th in 22:07.35, Kendyl Morgenstern came in 27th in 22:24.09, Nadia Andrew was 28th in 22:25.02, and Lauren Jacobs placed 34th clocking in with a time of 23:12.15.

Like the boys, the girls piled up impressive times with six of the top seven bettering times from the regular-season meet at Bethel the week prior, and several runners between varsity and JV recording PR times.

Newtown Coach Christina Caron said the Nighthawks were happy with how they competed against the top three schools, New Milford, New Fairfield, and Pomperaug of Southbury.

“We have a good core coming back next year, too,” Coach Christina Caron said.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.