Same course and point in the season, different objectives.

Newtown High School’s girls’ and boys’ cross country teams had differing goals when they each ran their second race of the season, the first home meet, on the Fairfield Hills trails.

Both teams had the fastest finisher — the girls, in fact, claimed each of the top five spots and had seven of the first eight finishers. The girls defeated both Joel Barlow of Redding and Stratford by 15-50 scores.

Katie Kost won the girls’ race in a time of 21:18, and was followed closely by Lu Hage (21:33), Emily Tressler (22:14), Hallie Filan (22:17), and Courtney Henchcliffe (22:31). Maddie Fetchick and Gloria Rowley placed seventh and eighth in 23:05 and 23:42. Claire Dubois, Chloe Karnas, and Julia Klein were tenth through 12th, clocking in at 23:52, 23:54, and 23:55. Other top NHS finishers were: 14. Ella Hage (24:30), 15. Laura Wong (24:43), 16. Eirenie Athanasoulis (25:07).

“This week’s focus was for them to run more as a team, not focus so much on individual times,” said Christina Caron, coach of the girls. “They’re used to running together in training. You have to run together to win meets.”

Running together allows for the girls to push each other, ideally bringing out the best in more team members, and generating more top finishers.

The boys, who defeated Stratford 15-50 and were edged 25-35 by Barlow, were led by race winner Nick Jacobs (17:38). Justin Halmose was fourth in 18:10, DJ Bobowick ninth in 18:57, Max Hanson tenth in 19:25, Will Tainter Gilbert 11th in 19:31. Evan Hildenbrand and Alex Wong were 15th and 16th, respectively, crossing the finish line a second apart in 20:08 and 20:09.

“We were really running against the clock today,” said Carl Strait, coach of the boys, adding that his team members are looking to establish fast times before turning their attention to running in packs with intent to win.

“Right now, we’re still building. We’re starting to get faster and faster. Once we’re peaking and plateauing, we’ll run more as a group,” Strait said. “We’re going to get better as the season goes on.”

The coach was pleased with the efforts of his team members.

“There were a lot of great times,” Strait said.

The Newtown teams will host Bunnell of Stratford, Brookfield, and Masuk of Monroe on Tuesday, September 25, with the girls racing at 4:30 and the boys at 5 pm.