The Newton South boys cross-country team was rung with a wake-up call Tuesday afternoon.
The Lions endured their first two losses of the season in a Dual County League tri-meet against Lincoln-Sudbury and . They lost to the Warriors 19-43 and fell 22-33 to the Patriots.
“This is a sort of an awareness of where they are in their training,” said Newton South coach Ted Norton. “I think the next week or two, we’re going to rechannel, rethink our strategy. But I think we’ll be prepared for the later season.”
For L-S Coach Pat McMahon, his Warriors (4-1) continue to build on a solid foundation.
“We’ve just been greatly improving over time,” he said. “I have a lot of depth, so I’m looking forward to the big meets. We did lose one against Acton[-Boxborough] last week. They had four good runners, but we really have seven. We’re just looking forward to the states, all-states, and league meets.”
Besides topping the Lions, the Warriors beat the Patriots 20-38 and droped them to 4-1 on the season.
“L-S is really good. I thought we ran pretty well and they smacked us around,” said C-C Coach Steve Lane.
The Lions managed to notch second place as sophomore Allen Shiu finished with a time of 15:21 on the 2.8-mile course. He was bested by Warrior senior Matthew Barnes (15:17) while C-C junior Seamus Lawlor (15:26) soon followed.
L-S then grabbed a firm control of the meet garnering the next three spots with Eli Hoenig (15:32) Connor Daley (15:40), and Greg Holdman (15:57).
Newton South would not get another runner across the finish line until Collin Pham (16:11) placed eleventh.
“It was a challenge and that’s what we expected,” said Norton. “The kids were here to give it their all. We just wanted to get as close as possible to them so we can prepare for later on in the season.”
