A swimming and diving team’s success cannot be measured exclusively by wins and losses, or how close a meet is for that matter. Individual event times (and scores in the case of diving) have to be taken into consideration and, with that said, things are looking good for Newtown High School’s squad following a 98-82 win over visiting Bethel on January 20.

“We’ve been training really hard the past couple of weeks. We had a lot of best times,” Newtown Coach Zach Gauvin said. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction today for a lot of kids.”

The coach added that with the team members swimming so well despite being pushed in practice, he expects even better results once they begin to taper back practice laps for postseason competition.

Newtown exhibitioned the final few events after clinching the team victory, making the final score a little closer than the meet actually was. Newtown, fueled by those great swim times, had first-place finishes (or fastest times for the exhibitioned races) in 11 of 12 events.

Newtown’s 200 yard medley relay team of Tommy Horan, Caelan Ritter, Matt Argraves, and Owen Gray was first in a time of 1:52.83. The relay contingent of Mike Poulter, Akash Ahuja, Matt Kretz, and Matt Hess was second in 2:03.70. The team of Tim Walsh, Chris Hiteshew, Matt Marini, and Ben Marini was third in 2:15.64.

Newtown had the top two finishers in the 200 freestyle race as Layton Harrell made his final touch in 2:00.25 and Andy Braun followed in 2:04.43.

The Nighthawks recorded a one-three finish in the 200 individual medley as Peter Fagerholm raced to first place in 2:16.98 and Ritter had a time of 2:27.90. Gray was second in the 50 freestyle, completing the race in 24.49.

The diving break featured Kyle Gaynor logging his best score of the campaign with a 184.1, good for first place, and Danny Arneth scoring a 134.2 for a fourth-place finish in his first competitive dive of his career. Andrew Lally was fifth with a score of 126.85.

Gray won the 100 butterfly race with a time of 59.84, and Kretz was second in 1:06.12. Curtis Giles was tops in the 100 freestyle event in 52.76. Braun (5:23.07), Fagerholm (5:42.47), and Dave Lawrence (5:51.09) had a one-two-three finish in the 500 free.

Newtown assembled a one-two finish in the 200 free relay event. The team of Harrell, Argraves, Giles, and Gray earned first in 1:41.53, and the team of Kretz, Sean McMullen, Brandon Qiao, and Alex Klang was runner-up in 1:51.51.

In the 100 backstroke, which was the first of the exhibition races, Newtown had the three fastest times; Horan swam to the fastest time, recording a 58.29, Poulter finished in 1:03.83, and Hess was next in 1:06.85.

Newtown also had the three fastest finishes in the 100 breaststroke as Ritter finished in 1:13.41, Ahuja made his final touch in 1:15.40, and Qiao finished in a time of 1:21.35.

The 400 relay contingent of Harrell, Giles, Braun, and Horan had the best time, completing the group effort in 3:46.29. The 400 relay team of Lawrence, Fagerholm, Klang, and Poulter was third in 3:58.43.

The Nighthawks won their fourth meet in a row, and have lost only to South-West Conference and state powerhouse Pomperaug of Southbury. The four remaining meets stand to be challenging — with New Fairfield, Joel Barlow of Redding, and two other strong state squads — Weston and Brookfield — on the slate. The comes the championship season.

“It’s only going to get harder from here,” Gauvin said. “If they can swim how they’re swimming now it definitely bodes well for SWCs and states.”