THOMASTON — The Nonnewaug girls cross country team swept Thomaston and Terryville cross country meet for one of the season’s first races by a score of 15-50 over Thomaston and Terryville. 

Running at Black Rock State Park will prepare the team for Berkshire League Championships because runners will already know the course when they run BLs later this month on Oct. 19. 

Coach Arleigh Duff feels it will be challenging to win BLs due to the low number of runners they have this year. 

“All I can do is run who I have and that’s it,” said Duff. “It’s hard to win the BL championship with only five girls because you don’t have enough subs.”

 Nonnewaug runners had an outstanding lead against Thomaston and Terryville as the race began to unfold. 

With such a commanding victory, the team spirit was high among the girls team because of  the dominating nature of all of their races thus far for the 2023 season. 

“I think we’re all excited for the season and looking forward to improving as much as we can,” says sophomore runner Grace Rubacha.

Many of the girls cross country athletes want to improve their times, no matter how small the team is. Rubacha said Duff is playing a huge role by helping the team reach their goals and to be the best as they can despite the small roster. The key to this season: being prepared to step up — even if it means filling in for sick or injured teammates. 

“If someone gets hurt or gets sick, there’s no alternates to put in, and if I don’t have any alternates to put in then we can’t win, so that makes it challenging,” Duff said.