By Steve Bigham

BETHEL – Newtown runners David Rod and Dan Maxwell finished an impressive sixth and seventh respectively at last Friday’s South-West Conference cross country championships in Bethel. Their fine performances, however, were not enough to lift the Nighthawks from their disappointing fifth-place finish.

Newtown held the distinction of being the first school to have two runners cross the line, but nearly three dozen runners from other schools followed before the next Newtown athlete came in.

“That’s a major gap from seventh to 40th,” explained coach Rich Pesce. “It’s disappointing, there’s no question. We really thought we should have been third and unfortunately it just wasn’t a complete team success. For two kids to make all conference is the highlight of the day. Unfortunately, they’re both seniors and we have to dig down deep to a junior to finish 40th and a junior who finished 46th and a junior who finished 56th.”

Pomperaug captured the SWC crown (60 points), unseating three-time defending champ New Milford (76), which finished second. Immaculate (120) and Bethel (155) – two teams the Nighthawks easily beat earlier on - were third and fourth, followed by Newtown (165). The rest of the pack included Bunnell (176), Joel Barlow (189), Brookfield (211), New Fairfield (219), Foran (231), Jonathan Law (244), Stratford (316), Weston (329) and Notre Dame-Fairfield (364).

Newtown was the odds on favorite to finish third overall after a 12-2 regular season. Finishing fifth was painful to watch for coach Pesce, who admitted he got excited when he saw Rod and Maxwell finish so close to the top. But by the time third-place runner, Chris DiNoto, crossed the line, the race was too far gone.

Joe Mohn of Immaculate was the overall winner, completing the 3.1 mile course in 16 minutes, 8 seconds. 2000 champ Ken Simeone of Foran-Milford (16:36) followed him. Third place went to Pomperaug’s Rob Rosasco (16:46), while Joe Freeman of New Milford (16:56) and Steve Malloy of Bunnell (17:08) finished fourth and fifth. Rod and Maxwell – sixth and seventh - followed in 17:11 and 17:12.

The top 12 runners earn all-SWC honors.

Rod was stellar all year and was predicted to finish among the top 10. Maxwell was a bit of a surprise, although he didn’t surprise himself.

“Dan Maxwell is the kind of kid that once he buys into the program he then devotes himself to it. He predicted where he’d finish. He was confident he was going to finish where he did,” Pesce said.

Rounding out Newtown’s pack were Chris DiNoto (40th, 18:54), Peter Terrance (46th, 18:54), Richie Richardson (66th, 19:36), Tyler Hull (76th, 19:55) and Dan Phillips (83rd, 20:07).

A total of 104 varsity runners competed in the race.

On Tuesday, Newtown competed in the junior varsity race at Bethel and sophomore Doug Bonjour finished first for Newtown in 20:24.

Newtown will now head to Wickham Park in Manchester Saturday to race in the CIAC Class LL meet. The race begins at 1 pm.