By Steve Bigham

Erin Kostecki finished 10th overall at last week’s South-West Conference (SWC) championship meet to lead Newtown to a sixth-place team finish. The junior runner tore through the 2.4-mile Bethel course in 17 minutes, 14 seconds on her way to her best finish of the year. A total of 15 teams competed in the race.

“She was ecstatic. Her goal was to be in the top 24 and she did much better than that,” explained Coach Marsha Caine.

Kostecki got off to a strong start and was among the top five runners in the early moments. After dropping back a bit, she grabbed hold of the number 10 spot at the midway point and maintained her position all the way to the finish line. Kostecki crossed the finish line 1:10 seconds behind 1999 champion, Shannon Kenefick (16:04), a Joel Barlow sophomore. Coming in second was Barlow’s Ashley St Pierre. However, despite have the 1-2 runners, Barlow finished second as a team to New Milford, which had three runners among the top seven finishers, including third-place finisher Allison Puppo (16:32).

Newtown’s number-two runner was Shawna King (18:33) who finished 30th overall. Jayme Crane, Newtown’s third best runner, finished 45th overall in 19:00. In 49th place was Jessica Snow (19:07), who inched out a Masuk runner to lift the Nighthawks over the Panthers by a single point. Newtown, which finished 9-6, lost to Masuk during the regular season.

Monica Zigman finished 52nd in 19:22 to round out Newtown’s top five. Laura Howard (19:42) and Katie Sullivan (20:02), finishing 57th and 60th, respectively.

The SWC race was delayed for nearly 30 minutes as emergency personnel attended to a Stratford boys’ runner who collapsed on the course.

“It was a long delay, longer than what they said it was, so we just stood there on the line waiting,” Caine said. “They were really nervous.”

On Tuesday, Newtown’s Katherine Moberg finished 16th overall at the junior varsity race in a time of 19:44. Her performance gives her the opportunity to compete at this Saturday’s CIAC Class L state meet at Wickham Park in East Hartford. Kostecki, King, Crane, Snow, Zigman and Howard will join her on the starting line.

The girls will run at 10 am.

TEAM_SCORES: 1. New Milford 47, 2. Joel Barlow 58, 3. Pomperaug 75, 4. Bethel 85, 5. Lauralton Hall 117, 6. Newtown 195, 7. Masuk 196, 8. Brookfield 207, 9. New Fairfield 276, 10. Weston 280, 11. Notre Dame-Fairfield 317, 12. Bunnell 372, 13. Immaculate 379, 14. Jonathan Law 458. No score: Stratford, Foran.