Newtown High School Wrestlers Look To Carry Success Into SWC Championships

By Andy Hutchison

This was supposed to a combination of a building year and a potentially successful campaign for the overall young but pretty experienced Newtown High School wrestling team. Coach Alan Potter said, during preseason, that his Nighthawks could be among the contenders in the South-West Conference, but noted that New Milford would be a tough team to overcome.

With the SWC Championships set for Friday, February 12, and Saturday, February 13 in Bethel, each of the conference teams is looking up at unbeaten New Milford, but only a select few are knocking on the door of second and third place — and Newtown is one of them.

The Nighthawks, Potter said as the regular season winded down this week, would finish third or fourth in the conference and vie for a second- or third-place finish in the tournament.

Newtown is competing with the likes of Pomperaug of Southbury, Masuk of Monroe, and Bethel for the runner-up, third- and fourth-place spots in the 13-team conference.

The Hawks (24-9) wrapped up the regular season with a 33-30 loss to Masuk on Tuesday. They lost a one-point nail-biter to Pomperaug early in the season and did not get a chance to avenge that defeat when Pomperaug opted not to compete head-to-head in a dual meet because of injuries.

“It’s not a rebuilding year,” Potter said. “We’ve had phenomenal success. Things are better than we thought they might be.”

Potter can’t help but look ahead to next year and believes this team could challenge for first place in the SWC. For now, however, he is enjoying helping this year’s version of the Hawks be among the best in the conference.

The less-experienced wrestlers, including first-year grappler Charlie Helgren, have improved quickly, while the second- and third-year wrestlers have developed and the veterans — led by senior captains Brian Kuruc and Dan Milot — have done as expected, Potter said.

“The thing that makes this team is that they’ve got a lot of team camaraderie,” said Potter, adding that the grapplers are having fun in addition to winning.

The success of the team can be attributed mainly to effort, junior 152-pound competitor Will Northrup said.

“We’re working a lot harder than we have in the past,” he said. “It’s fun that we’ve worked for it and we’re starting to see it pay off.”

Although a male-dominated sport, many teams have a female or two on the roster. Newtown happens to have more than that. Becca Castegner is one of four females on the team and is a regular in the 119-pound weight class. A senior, she earned her first varsity win this winter and pulled out a pivotal victory in a close team win over Masuk in January. Despite facing boys who are similar in weight, her competitors often have a strength and experience advantage, but Castagner has had her share of success this winter.

“It’s challenging because I obviously have a disadvantage,” she said. “Every single time I go out there and try my best to win — and it pays off sometimes.”

Castegner says she enjoys having a leadership role among the girls on the team and has fun working with the other girls, Alex Klein, Celeste Cheung and Leigh Gerity.

“I try to teach them and be a leader to them. They’re really good girls and they’re going to be great wrestlers in a couple of years,” Castegner said.

Watch out for this group of boys — and girls — both in this weekend’s SWC Championship and in the years to come.