Newtown High School’s cross country teams capped off the regular season with a meet at Bethel to take on the host Wildcats, New Milford, and Pomperaug of Southbury on October 11.

In the girls’ race, Newtown defeated Bethel 25-36 and lost to New Milford 15-40 and 26-29. Keira Budge came in ninth in a time of 21:53.60, Clara D’Amico was 11th in 22:20.40, Grace Chiriatti came in 12th in 22:23.79, Lauren Jacobs was 15th in 22:52.01. The Nighthawks had three more in the top 20 as Grace Lyons placed 17th in 23:00.15, Kendyl Morgenstern was 18th in 23:16.64, and Jessica Zhang placed 19th in 23:18.47.

Newtown’s boys edged Bethel 27-28 and beat Pomperaug on a tie-breaker; the teams finished with top-five runner scores of 28 apiece but Newtown’s sixth-place finisher made the difference. NHS fell 17-43 to New Milford.

Soheib Dissa led the way for Newtown with a time of 17:13, Noah Masotta had a time of 18:47, Stephen Sibley finished in 18:48, Curtis Shaw finished in 19:11, Henry Prout completed the course in 19:14, and Andew Arena was next for the Nighthawks, crossing the finish line in 19:16.

The Nighthawks will be back at the Bethel course for the South-West Conference championships on Wednesday, October 19; the girls will race at approximately 3:30 pm followed by the boys just after 4 o’clock.