Cross Country State Championships—

Pair Of Top Ten Finishes Helps Boys Place Fourth

Led by Jake Feinstein’s third-place finish and Mitchell Russo’s seventh-place result, Newtown High School’s boys’ cross country team was fourth in the Class LL state championship meet at Wickham Park in Manchester on October 27.

Feinstein finished the course in a time of 16:06 behind only Staples of Westport’s Henry Wynne (15:49) and Ridgefield’s Trevor Hopper (16:01).

Danbury won the meet with a team low top-five score of 94, New Milford was runner-up with a score of 145, and Simsbury came in third with 152. NHS edged out fifth-place Ridgefield (157) by scoring 156 points. There were 190 runners and 27 teams to place in the state meet.

Russo finished in 16:32. Newtown’s Christopher Gamble was 28th in 17:11, Paul Mangiafico came in 37th in 17:18, and Rob Russo was 81st in 17:55.

Newtown’s girls earned 12th place with 305 points. Ridgefield won the competition with 55. Brianne Moulder was Newtown’s top runner, completing the course in a time of 20:35, good for 15th place among 147 competitors. The race was won by Norwich Free Academy’s Brianna Lenehan in 18:51. Newtown’s Hannah Schwartz was 31st in 21:12, Talia Fappiano placed 63rd in 22:00, Kelly Coughlin came in 96th in 22:49, and Sarah Mawdsley was 108th in 23:18.

Newtown finished eight points better than those scores reflect because of runners ahead of Newtown finishers whose placements did not factor into team scoring. Norwalk High, Brien McMahon of Norwalk, and Stamford had individual runners who raced but those teams did not have enough runners to compete as a team.