Newtown High Swims Into Postseason On High Note; 200-Yard Relay Team Sets Pool Record

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s boys’ swimming and diving team capped off the regular season with a 100-81 win over New Milford at home on February 12.

In the win, the 200-yard freestyle relay team set a Newtown High School pool record with a time of 1:33.15. The Nighthawks finished the season with an 8-2 record as they head into the South-West Conference Championships.

The diving portion of the championships will be held February 24 at Pomperaug High in Southbury and the swimming events are scheduled for February 26 at Masuk in Monroe — both at 6 pm.

Defending champion and perennial powerhouse Pomperaug along with Brookfield are the top two teams in the conference. Newtown Coach Matt Childs believes his team will be in a battle with several teams for the third through sixth spots.

“Ideally. you’d like to say we can compete with Brookfield but, more realistically, I think we’re going to have a tough time with Barlow and Weston and New Milford,” Childs said. “There really won’t be a whole lot of separation between those places.”

Newtown narrowly beat Weston, 95-91, in a good postseason-like, competitive tune-up on February 9, but proved to be a much tougher team in the season-finale with New Milford.

In the win over New Milford, Newtown’s top finishers were as follows:

200-yard medley relay: First, Luke Fiore, Michael Hubbard, Matt Iassogna, and Abben Hung, 1:48.93. Second, Andrew LaMarche, Conor Donnelly, Nick Lafky, and Kyle O’Connor, 1:54.40.

200 freestyle: Second, Dan Hufziger, 2:01.81.

200 individual medley: Second, Donnelly, 2:12.97.

50 free: First, Fiore, 23.16. Second, Hung, 23.40.

Diving: First, Zach Bennett, 213.9 points. Second, Sam Fretias, 139.8 points.

100 butterfly: Second, Iassogna, 1:00.51.

100 free: First, Fiore, 49.80.

500 free: Second, Donnelly, 5:11.94.

200 free relay: First, Fiore, O’Connor, Hufziger, and Hung, 1:33.15.

100 backstroke: First, LaMarche, 1:07.03.

100 breaststroke: First, Hung, 1:05.87. Second, Hubbard, 1:09.88.

400 free relay: Second, Iassogna, George Delia, Donnelly, and Hufziger, 3:42.66.