On October 18th the Naugatuck Cross Country team set foot on the trail once again; this time for the Naugatuck Valley Cross Country Championships held at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Watertown, CT. 

The young team took to the trail with its All-NVL winners Gwen Marenghi (sophomore) and Lily Dalton (junior) leading the girls team to its 3rd place finish and Eddie Dalton (junior) and Jason Costa (junior) paving the way for the guys to finish as runner up in the championship meet.

The Greyhounds worked very hard in the off-season and season. The guys capped off 56-mile weeks and 32-mile weeks for the ladies.

 Going into race day, the girls knew they were up against some tough competition, as Holy Cross and Watertown had teams equal in strength to Naugy’s. The guys were hoping to come out with a win, as they were in a great position to do so, however, just like life, things do not always go as planned.

“There will always be bad races and there will always be good races, but at the end of the day we trained hard, and are proud of the work we put into this season,” said Zack McCasland (sr), varsity Naugy cross-country runner.

Holy Cross was able to nudge Naugy boys out of first place and take the title of NVL Champs. As for the girls, Holy Cross also took the trophy home followed by runner-ups Watertown.

“I don’t think some of our performances at NVLS reflected our capability and work we put in throughout the season, the outcome was definitely not what we were wishing for. Leading up to the race we knew that we were really strong and we were in a good position to win it but ultimately that is not what happened. In this sport unexpected things happen, and that’s what happened at this particular race, however, we will definitely use this loss as motivation going into the indoor season,” said Jason Costa (jr), varsity Naugy cross-country runner.

“When it’s all said and done, we had a really fun season. I’m so proud of the team’s progression and I can’t wait to see our hard work carry into next season,” said Chloe Tome (soph), a varsity Naugy cross-country runner.

The field was a lot more competitive this year than in the years past, with the top 7 places in the guy’s varsity race running the 5k distance in under 18 minutes and the top 6 girls in the varsity race crossing the line sub-21 minutes.

“Watertown’s course is one of the easier courses in the league, so stepping onto the line with a ton of proper training and workouts under us makes the race more of a mentally tough race over physically,” said Luke Dalton (Jr), varsity Naugy cross-country runner.

As our Varsity runners shined bright on the course, so did the Junior Varsity athletes. With the JV boys taking 1st place for the third consecutive year. Sophomore Owen Nemeth won the individual title in the JV boys race with a time of 19:18, a good look for the future of the team.

The Naugatuck Cross Country team will now leave the trails behind and head toward the track as they start to condition and prepare for their upcoming indoor track season, hoping to continue their streak of impressive seasons.