Unbeaten — Newtown High School Runners Cap 14-0 Campaign

By Andy Hutchison

They’re perfect! Newtown High School’s boys’ cross country team capped off a perfect regular season with wins over Pomperaug of Southbury, Bethel, and Immaculate of Danbury at Fairfield Hills on October 12. The Nighthawks finished off their first unbeaten season since 2006 with a 14-0 mark.

Newtown beat Pomperaug (26-32), Bethel (15-50), and Immaculate (15-48).

“Pomperaug gave us everything we could handle as they were in the lead after three runners per team,” NHS Coach Dave Foss said.

Pomperaug’s top runner, Colin McCrory beat No. 1 Newtown runner Jake Feinstein to the finish line with a kick in the last half-mile, winning 16:16 to 16:27. Pomperaug’s No. 2, John Bauer then beat Newtown’s No. 2 Pat Sullivan to the line, 16:38 to 16:53, to open up a two-point lead. Newtown got a point back when Dieter Gutbrod beat Pomperaug’s No. 3, Troy Volanth, by 9 seconds, 17:02 to 17:11, pulling NHS to within 11-10 after three runners.

As has been the case all season long, Newtown’s 4–7 runners proved to be too much. David Klein, Austin Baldour, and Vinny Brophy all beat Pomperaug’s No. 4 runner Mike Calandro to the line with impressive showings in 17:17, 17:26, and, 17:32, respectively, to clinch the victory. Adding to the depth were Palmer Lintz, Jordan Hensel, and Paul Mangiafico all of whom beat Pomperaug’s No. 5 runner, Jason Oemecke, with times of 17:52, 18:02, and 18:03 to close out the victory.

Newtown heads to South-West Conference Championships on Thursday, October 21, where the Hawks will square off against Pomperaug and New Milford, the eight-time defending champions.

The team has run well all year but, Foss believes, really came alive and stepped up even more in a late-season win over New Milford and again at the Wickham Invitational in Manchester on October 9.

“The top seven just seems to perform their best when the competition gets better,” Foss said.

In the Wickham race, NHS took fifth against a very strong field in the championship race and should earn a top ten ranking from these results, Foss said. Feinstein ran a strong race against the state’s elite, finishing 9th (16:28) and Sullivan finished 22nd (17:04). Gutbrod (17:20) ran his best race to that point of the season, running to 34th and was followed by a solid trio of Palmer Lintz (17:44), David Klein (17:46), and Vinny Brophy (17:53) in 62nd, 63rd, and 73rd, respectively. Baldour rounded out the roster in 93rd place (18:05).

“The kids have put in so much effort over the summer and so far during the season. They just seem to be getting better and better with each meet,” Foss said.