Newtown High School's cross country teams weathered the tough competition (and the unusually warm conditions) to place third in the South-West Conference Championships, at Bethel High, on October 19.

The girls finished behind first-place Pomperaug of Southbury, which had a low score of 30, and runner-up Immaculate of Danbury (56) as the Nighthawks scored 87 points in the 13-school 5K race. On the boys' side, Newtown had a score of 108 to finish behind first-place New Milford (57) and Pomperaug (61) among 14 schools.

Although the fall on the whole has been warm, a recent cooling in temperature made for surprising conditions for the championship meet as temps in the high 70s greeted the runners.

Newtown's Lu Hage finished seventh overall with a time of 21:08.28 and Lauren Russo was 16th in 21:44.36. Newtown had a cluster of runners finish between 20th and 24th as Taylor Pare and Camille Johnson finished 20th and 21st, respectively, with times of 21:57.48 and 21:59.20, and Erin Tressler and Maddie Findley were 23rd and 24th with times of 22:14.26 and 22:24.55. Willow Pears was 40th as she came across the finish line in 24:18.49.

"It was really hard," Hage said of the challenging - hilly in spots - course compounded by the heat. Hage added that support of teammates was key in helping her perform well.

"Definitely having my team encouraging me throughout the race is what kept me going," said Tressler, who is battling injuries in the postseason.

Doug Russell, coach of the girls' squad, thought his team did as expected, pointing out that the Nighthawks came into the race ranked third in the conference.

"We gave it a good effort today," Russell said.

Ryan Escoda was the boys' team's top finisher, placing 13th in a time of 17:32.64, and Riley Rising was 18th in 17:42.35. Brenden Reeds followed in 20th, clocking in at 17:52.01, Joel Duval was 24th in 18:05.40,Dylan Bartlett came in 33rd in 18:23.85, Nick Jacobs was 36th in 18:35.70, and Christian Lestik placed 48th in 19:09.73.

"It was really warm. My legs felt like Jello throughout the course," said Escoda, who pushed his way through to place among the top finishers.

"I'm proud of my team and happy with my placement. I think the competition was extremely tough," said Bartlett, adding that training on hills helped prepare the Nighthawks for this meet.

Carl Strait, coach of the NHS boys, said he was pleased with the team's effort, but a downfall was coming out too fast at the start of the race.

"The kids gave 100 percent. They supported each other and picked each other up," Strait said.