By Steve Bigham
By Steve Bigham
STRATFORD â David Rod captured his second consecutive victory and the Newtown High School boysâ cross-country team upped its record to 10-2 Tuesday afternoon with an impressive run at Roosevelt Park in Stratford.
Rod cruised along the 2.9-mile course in 18 minutes, 13 seconds to lead the Nighthawks to wins over Stratford (18-45), Weston (19-44) and Jonathan Law (21-38). The local runners raised their record to 10-2 with just one league meet to go before next Fridayâs (October 19) South-West Conference meet at Bethel.
On Tuesday, Dan Maxwell finished fourth overall in 19:18, while Dan Philips followed in sixth place in 19:47 and Chris DiNoto seventh in 19:49. Tyler Hull â 10th overall â rounded out Newtownâs top five in 20:24.
âWe had approached this race as more of a kind of a training run,â said coach Rich Pesce. âWe felt pretty confident with the teams we were running against that we should do pretty well. Rather than going all out, we ran it like a training practice.â
And it seemed to pay off, particularly for Philips who is battling back from an early-season ankle injury. Philips, who Pesce calls the X-factor, ran particularly well on Tuesday and may be peaking in time for the SWCs.
Coach Pesce believes a strong effort by Phillips could be the key to securing at least a second- or third-place league finish. New Milford and Pomperaug are the only two teams to beat Newtown this year. Pomperaug may be too deep, but Pesce thinks New Milford may be beat-able.
Other Newtown runners finishing among the top 20 Tuesday were Peter Terrance (11th, 20:33), Chris Giacolone (12th, 20:48), Richie Richardson (13th, 20:54), Dave Millar (18th, 21:13), Matt Miller (19th, 21:18) and Ryan Shandley (20th, 21:29).
The course at Roosevelt Park winds through wooded areas, a true cross-country course. However, Pesce called it a âtreacherous trailâ and urged his runners to be careful. Now is not the time for injuries.
Newtown closes out the regular season Monday with a dual meet against Notre Dame and Bunnell at Eisenhower Park in Milford.
The Newtown runners competed at the Wickham Invitational in Manchester this past Saturday. The annual race brings together runners from all over the state and serves as a tune-up for the state meet slated for later this month. On Saturday, with more than 300 runners taking part, Rod finished 52nd, Maxwell 88th, DiNoto 138th, Giacolone 191st, Hull 194th, Shandley 204th and Millar 226th.