By Steve Bigham

A

 strong contingent of returning runners puts the Newtown High School girls’ cross country team in good position to improve on its fourth place league finish a year ago.

Coach Marsha Caine has already filled in the holes left by the departure of Erin Kostecki, Tracy Ravetto and Jessica Snow and her team may be deeper than usual.

Newtown finished 13-3 in 2000.

“We should be much stronger. We should do at least as well as last year. The pack of strong runners is bigger,” said coach Caine, a runner herself, who also teaches science at the high school.

Leading the pack will be first-year runner Brittany Rayzor, a senior who finished third in the mile run at last October’s South-West Conference track event. Rayzor, a field hockey transfer, could end up being the surprise of the league this year. As Newtown’s probable number one runner, she’ll replace All-SWC runner Kostecki who finished 11th at last year’s conference meet.

On Rayzor’s heels is senior Angela Shannon, who made a big impact last season as a junior. In her first year on the squad (after transferring from soccer), Shannon was a key member of the Nighthawks and finished 17th at the SWCs.

Senior Jen Russell, Melanie Murphy and junior Christine Manfredonia are also back from last year and are expected to improve on their times.

Coach Caine calls her top runners the Power Pack Five and expects they’ll compete with the league’s best. But they won’t be able to do it alone, especially as the season rolls along. Injuries and other circumstances do pop up and runners like Sarah Macknight and Jen Reed are more than capable of stepping up. Macknight, a junior, was a member of Newtown’s 4-by-800 track squad that finished second in the league last spring. Senior Melanie Murphy was also part of the team and will be counted on to contribute this fall.

Also back are seniors Erin Dennen, Monica Zigman and discus standout, Whitney Blanchard.

The list of strong runners continues with junior Megan Ignatius, sophomores Laura Reed, Nikki Snow, Carolyn Brennan and Caitlin Weber, a soccer transfer. The pool of talented freshmen includes Theresa Billafano, Quincy Blanchard, Theresa Billafano, Ally Poison and Monica Cluff.

Seven members of the Newtown team honed their running skills at a cross country camp in Vermont this summer.

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Schedule

 

Sept. 12        at Masuk       4 pm

          New Fairfield

          Immaculate

Sept. 15        at Bethel Invite        9 am

Sept. 25        Foran  4 pm

          Pomperaug

          Brookfield

Oct. 2 Bethel 4 pm

          Joel Barlow

          New Milford

Oct. 6 at Wickham Invite     TBA

Oct. 9 at Stratford    4 pm

          Weston

          Jonathan Law

Oct. 15         at Lauralton Hall      4 pm

          Notre Dame

          Bunnell

The SWC championship meet will be held Friday, October 19, at Bethel.