NHS Cross Country Teams Start Season 4-1

By Andy Hutchison

The Newtown girls’ and boys’ cross country teams are off to strong starts after two early-season races; both squads are 4-1.

Sophomore Anne Martino raced to first place overall to lift the girls’ squad to three wins on Tuesday. Senior captain Dave Meyer then won first place in the boys’ meet, helping NHS to a three wins of its own.

In the girls’ season opener, at Reed Intermediate School on September 10, the Nighthawks dropped only their second regular-season race in the last four years (New Milford did it again, pulling off a 21-36 win), but the Nighthawks raced to a 26-31 win over a tough Immaculate team to begin the campaign 1-1.

The new-look Newtown squad, which graduated five of its top seven runners from last fall, displayed fast improvement and rebounded with three wins — besting Masuk, Notre Dame-Fairfield, and Oxford — in a home quad meet on Tuesday.

In the season opening race, Martino was sixth overall (she finished the 3.1-mile course in a time of 21:53), freshman Emily Begg was seventh (22:16), Mara Scallon was eighth (22:26), Natalie Villa placed 11th (23:06) and Katie Burns was 15th (23:28).

In their second race, the Hawks beat Masuk 18-44, ND 18-41, and Oxford 18-45. Martino shaved 35 seconds off her time to cross the finish ahead of the pack in 21:18. Martino said that the cooler conditions and having run the course once before played a role in the improved time.

“I knew when I had to push myself,” said Martino, adding that Scallon (who placed second overall in 21:52) was also pushing her to succeed.

Begg came in fifth in 22:15, Villa was seventh in 22:46, Burns was ninth in 23:13, Danielle Villa placed 11th in 24:07, Eliana Kohrman-Glaser was 13th in 24:13, Emily Teri came in 16th in 24:48 and Keegan Frobey was 19th in 25:12.

Boys’ Highlights

In their first meet of the season, the boys lost to New Milford 36-22 and beat Immaculate 20-41.

Meyer led the way with a second-place finish (17:32). Senior Tucker Grose was fifth overall (18:06). Sophomore Austin Baldour and senior Adam Schankman were 10th and 11th, respectively, with times of 18:30 and 18:38. Junior Andrew LaMarche rounded out Newtown’s top five, finishing 14th with a time of 18:58. Newtown’s sixth, seventh, and eighth finishers, junior Matt Bobkowski, sophomore Kyle McCarthy, and sophomore Ryan Powers, were 18th, 19th, and 20th overall and recorded times of 19:41, 19:44, and 19:50. Freshman Palmer Lintz was close behind, in a time of 19:58. NHS was without one of its top runners, Alex DiNoto, for the season-opening race.

In their second meet, the Nighthawks beat Masuk 23-38, topped Oxford 15-50, and beat Notre Dame-Fairfield 15-50. Meyer was first overall in 17:23 and was happy to record his best time at the course in his final home meet, but added that the best part of the race was how well the Hawks did as a whole. “Our team is looking really strong ... That’s what’s most important,” he said.

In a tight battle for fourth and fifth, DiNoto and Grose both came across the finish line in 18:27, with DiNoto claiming fourth by fractions of a second.

Adam Schankman was sixth in 18:54, LaMarche followed in seventh in 19:04, Austin Baldour was eighth in 19:08, Bobkowski came in ninth in 19:36, Powers was 10th in 19:42, David Lucia finished 12th in 19:52, Lintz was 13th in 19:58, Erik Hoffman placed 15th in 20:08 and McCarthy was 16th in 20:10.