Newtown High Swimmers Exceeding Coach’s Expectations

By Andy Hutchison

Only three meets into the season, the Newtown High School’s boys’ swimmers already started punching their tickets to the near-season end’s Class L state championship trials.

In the January 6 defeat to Brookfield, Luke Fiore qualified in the 50-yard freestyle in a time of 23.63 and the 100 free (50.69) and Matt Iassogna qualified in the 100-yard butterfly (58.38). Then, in a 102-79 win over New Fairfield on January 9, in which the Nighthawks improved to 3-1 as a team, Fiore achieved the necessary time in the 200 free (1:54.04).

“It’s nice to get it out of the way early in the season,” said Fiore, who, along with his teammates, will look to continue to shave time off his race results.

Abben Hung qualified for the state trials in the 50 free (23.93).

“It was a very pleasant surprise,” Hung said of qualifying so early in the season. As of the New Fairfield meet, the sophomore was closing in on qualifying in the 100 free.

His time of 53.42 in the meet was just off the necessary time of 52.47.

The performance of underclassmen as a whole has been a pleasant surprise for the Nighthawks this winter. Sophomores Hung and Kyle O’Connor and Fiore, a junior, have emerged as the top swimmers.

“They’ve exceeded my expectations so far in this point of the year. We want to try to keep this rolling,” Coach Matt Childs said.

In the win over New Fairfield, Newtown captured first place in all events except for the 400-yard relay, the 100-yard backstroke, and diving. Despite New Fairfield’s strong finish in the backstroke, Newtown captured more points in the race by taking second, third, and fourth. Newtown’s results from the New Fairfield meet are as follows (event, placement, name, time):

200-yard medley relay: 1. Tony Fragoso, Michael Hubbard, Iassogna, Hung, 1:49.55. 2. Andrew LaMarche, Patrick Stein, Andrew Argraves, Kyle O’Connor, 1:57.63

200-yard freestyle: 1. Fiore, 1:54.04. 3. Chris Parker, 2:07.49

200-yard individual medley: 1. Connor Donnelly, 2:21.45. 2. Iassogna, 2:24.78

50-yard freestyle: 1. Hung, 23.93. 3. Hubbard, 25.41                             

100-yard fly: 1. Fiore, 1:00.82. 2. Donnelly, 105.62. 3. George Delia, 105.66

100-yard freestyle: 1. Hung, 53.42. 3. Parker, 57.35. 4. Tom Mascher, 100.40

500-yard freestyle: 1. Iassogna, 5:35.30. 3. Stein, 6:11.23. 4. Sean Fahey, 6:31.42

200-yard freestyle relay: 1. Fragoso, Parker, Fiore, O’Connor, 1:39.99. 2. Donnelly, Devon Frost, Kyle Hufzinger, Jordan Simonds, 1:50.25

100-yard backstroke: 2. Delia, 1:10.06. 3. LaMarche, 1:10.86. 4. Mascher, 1:11.45

100-yard breaststroke: 1. Hubbard, 1:09.22. 2. O’Connor, 1:21.68

400-yard freestyle relay: 2. Nate Crevier, Frost, Hufzinger, Fahey, 4:20.65

Diving: 2. Dan Greenwood, 123.35