Newtown High School’s girls’ and boys’ cross country teams competed in meets on the trails behind Reed School on October 1.

The girls defeated Joel Barlow of Redding 24-33, Brookfield 16-45, and Stratford 15-50. The Nighthawks were led by the one-two finish of standouts Brianne Moulder and Hannah Schwartz, who completed the 3.1-mile course with times of 20:25 and 20:46. Kiera Elkow was sixth in 22:14.

Also cracking the top ten were Sarah Mawdsley, seventh in 22:23 and Bridget Spies, ninth in 22:30. Newtown’s top seven included Kathryn D’Alessandro, who was 11th in 22:39, and Kelly Coughlin, 15th in 23:06. Not far behind were Valerie Kadysheva, who was 16th in a time of 23:14, and Anna Pickney, 18th in 23:10.

The boys defeated Stratford 19-44 and Barlow 17-44. Brookfield defeated the NHS runners 19-36. Newtown’s top finisher was Christopher Gamble, who was second in a time of 17:10. Tom Floros was eighth in 17:52, and Grandon Smith came in ninth in 18:04, and Joey Whelan placed 10th in 18:09. Kevin Gorman was 13th in 18:21, Nick Swenson came in 14th in 18:28, and Kyle Mangold placed 16th in 18:43 to cap off Newtown’s top seven. Don Sun placed 17th in 18:46,  Ethan Burg was 19th in 18:55, and Nate Steinebrey was 20th in 18:56.

Brookfield held the top five spots through the mile mark. Newtown made its move on the hills of mile two as Gamble moved from sixth to second. By the end of mile two, Floros, Whelan, and Smith had moved right in behind the Brookfield No. 5 runner, and another pack of Newtown runners had moved into the mix as well, but it wasn’t enough to break up the Brookfield pack, and the Bobcats had five of the top six finishers to win the race.

The Nighthawks also participated in the Winding Trails Invitational in Farmington on Saturday. The Newtown boys placed second in both the varsity and junior varsity races. Smith was Newtown’s top varsity finisher, placing 11th in a time of 17:30.03. He was followed by Whelan and Floros, 15th and 16th, respectively, with times of 17:37.33 and 17:37.77. Burg and Swenson rounded out Newtown’s top-five, both finishing in the top 20 overall. Jason Ferrari was Newtown’s top JV finisher, leading seven NHS runners in the top 20.