By Kim J. Harmon

Tryouts and spring camps officially open next week but the winter season is still clinging to life as the Newtown High School swim prepares to take on its next to last challenge of the 2005-06 season – the CIAC Class L championships.

And it is the last Newtown team standing as the girls’ basketball squad was unceremoniously knocked out of the CIAC Class LL state tournament with a 69-30 loss to No. 2 seed New Britain last Friday night.

Pitchers and catchers will be pounding their gloves on Monday, but the swimmers are not ready to let winter go and are eyeing a strong finish at L meet. The trials are Saturday and the finals next Wednesday at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

Read on –

SWIMMING

Fourth at SWCs

It was a South-West Conference meet unlike almost any other – where, in some essence, there were two championship races going on and the battle for first (between Brookfield and Pomperaug) was almost as thrilling as the battle for third (between New Fairfield and Newtown).

Brookfield won its battle by seven points.

New Fairfield won its battle by eight points.

For the past few years it has been accepted wisdom that the Brookfield and Pomperaug swim teams perform on a higher plane of existence and that first and second place at the conference championship belong to them and them alone … leaving third as the chief prize for the merely mortal teams.

Newtown had a shot at third place and thought it could get it, but with a strong contingent in the 500 freestyle and a solid finish in the 400 freestyle relay the Rebels held off the Nighthawks to take that prize as their own.

“I’m not disappointed at all,” said sophomore Stefan Toi, who – in the 100 butterfly – captured Newtown’s only first-place finish, “because we swam as well as we could have.”

Brookfield took first place in six of the 12 events performed last week. Pomperaug grabbed three and New Fairfield took two. And the one that went to Newtown was one of the most hotly contested events of the night.

Toi was seeded second in the event to Chad Welsch of New Fairfield. But Chris DelCasino of Brookfield was seeded third and within easily hailing distance was Greg Kovach of Masuk and Donny Allen of New Fairfield.

The race was as tight as they come with Toi edging Welsch by only .27 seconds. But it was even closer than that as DelCasino finished third by only .60 seconds, Kovach finished fourth by only .66 seconds and Allen finished fifth by only .92 seconds.

“I was basically trying to redeem myself,” said Toi, who earlier stumbled to a fifth-place finish in the 200 individual medley. “I tried to take it out hard and when I pushed off 75 (yards), I knew I had a good chance of winning it.”

Newtown held a 23-point lead on New Fairfield heading into the 100 butterfly, but with Welsch and Allen going second and fifth the Rebels began to creep up. The crept up a little more with a third-place finish in the 100 freestyle but took a big leap forward after going first and third in the 500 freestyle and third in the 200 freestyle relay.

The ‘Hawks had four swimmers finish in the top 10 in the 100 backstroke but couldn’t get close enough to the Rebels by the final relay. As Brookfield roared to a first-place finish to capture the championship, New Fairfield finished second to earn third-place overall.

“I’m perfectly fine with fourth place,” said senior co-captain Max Barrett, “We all swam our best times and we stayed together as a team.”

Barrett took part in the two fastest events of the night – the 50 and 100 freestyles. Barrett wasn’t even seeded in the championship heat of the 50, but a stunning finish of 22.91 (just .41 seconds off the school record of 22.50 set by Scott Kamrath back in 1976) vaulted him into third place overall.

“I had some sinus issues this year and came back in full health,” said Barrett, “but it didn’t matter that I was in the second heat. My goal was to break 23 (seconds) and I did that. I knew the time was good and I thought I would have a shot at (first).”

But DelCasino took first at 22.74, just .04 seconds ahead of Andrew Altman of New Fairfield and .17 seconds ahead of Barrett.

He had another shot in the 100 freestyle, but a blistering time of 50.59 wasn’t enough – Travis McNamara (the conference MVP) swam a far more blistering time of 47.49 to capture first. In fact, three swimmers broke 50 seconds and that left Barrett in fourth.

“I knew I would be seeded next to McNamara,” said Barrett, “and I thought he would pull me along. I blew my seed time away and I was happy about that.”

Freshman Brendan Deveney had a spectacular meet, as well, finishing third in the 200 individual medley and third in the 100 backstroke, as sophomore Anthony Fiore finished sixth in the 100 breaststroke.

Besides the upcoming CIAC Class L meet, Barrett and Toi are still striving towards their respective age group national meets and as they strive to lower their times even further the Nighthawks will strive towards a top finish in the state championships.

TEAM SCORES – 1. Brookfield 511, 2. Pomperaug 504, 3. New Fairfield 335, 4. Newtown 327, 5. Weston 251, 6. Bethel 221, 7. Masuk 205, 8. Bunnell/Stratford 157, 9. New Milford 48.

INDIVIDUALS

200 medley relay – 1. Pomperaug (Travis McNamara, Jim Janish, Mason Banwell, Ben Smith) 1:41.98, 2. Brookfield 1:42.46, 3. Newtown 1:45.10, 4. Weston 1:46.67, 5. New Fairfield 1:47.43.

200 freestyle – 1. Billy Magin (Brookfield) 1:47.21, 2. Mike Traynor (New Fairfield) 1:49.42, 3. Brian Jones (Brookfield) 1:51.26, 4. Chad Welsch (New Fairfield) 1:54.27, 5. Henry Bottger (Weston) 1:54.86, 6. Julian Lui (Masuk) 1:55.59, 15. Kevin Herring (Newtown) 2:03.48, 17. Scott Whalley (Newtown) 2:03.68, 19. Mike Parker (Newtown) 2:04.43, 20. Nick Maurer (Newtown), 2:04.83.

200 individual medley – 1. Travis McNamara (Pomperaug) 1:59.42, 2. Danny Palmiotto (Brookfield) 2:02.62, 3. Brendan Deveney (Newtown) 2:03.63, 4. Greg Kovach (Masuk) 2:05.63, 5. Stefan Toi (Newtown) 2:06.53, 6. Matt Sorena (Brookfield) 2:06.80, 8. Anthony Fiore (Newtown) 2:10.65, 10. Zack Moliver (Newtown) 2:17.05.

50 freestyle – 1. Chris DelCasino (Brookfield) 22.74, 2. Andrew Altman (New Fairfield) 22.78, 3. Max Barrett (Newtown) 22.91, 4. Max Sackerson (Brookfield) 23.25, 5. Dave Ely (Brookfield) 23.34, 6. Andrew Murphy (Bethel) 23.45, 16. Jeff Bonaccorso (Newtown) 24.98, 25. Allen Hubbard (Newtown) 26.47, 28. Dave Rothacker (Newtown) 27.37.

Diving – 1. Adam Duffield (Brookfield) 403.60, 2. Jon Andrews (Pomperaug) 388.30, 3. Brian Sobel, Bunnell/Stratford, 382.55, 4. Zak Krassin (Weston) 340.30, 5. Matt Ryan (Brookfield) 314.80, 6. Conor Dunn (Brookfield) 305.65.

100 butterfly – 1. Stefan Toi (Newtown) 55.99, 2. Chad Welsch (New Fairfield) 56.26, 3. Chris DelCasino (Brookfield) 56.59, 4. Greg Kovach (Masuk) 56.65, 5. Donny Allen (New Fairfield) 56.91, 6. Andrew Murphy (Bethel) 57.07, 13. Nick Maurer (Newtown) 1:00.25, 16. Chris Fragoso (Newtown) 1:00.80, 23. Rob Morlath (Newtown) 1:11.34.

100 freestyle – 1. Travis McNamara (Pomperaug) 47.49, 2. Billy Magin (Brookfield) 48.48, 3. Andrew Altman (New Fairfield) 49.85, 4. Max Barrett (Newtown) 50.59, 5. Kevin Thai (Bethel) 51.23, 6. Sean McMillan (Masuk) 52.64, 18. Kevin Herring (Newtown) 55.92, 20. Jeff Bonaccorso (Newtown) 56.42, 23. James O’Connor (Newtown) 58.41.

500 freestyle – 1. Tim Krompinger (New Fairfield) 4:55.59, 2. Matt Sorena (Brookfield) 4:55.91, 3. Mike Traynor (New Fairfield) 4:56.03, 4. Brian Jones (Brookfield) 5:04.94, 5. Dan Theleen (Pomperaug) 5:13.23, 6. Julian Lui (Masuk) 5:13.70, 16. Scott Whalley (Newtown) 5:53.87, 18. Rob Morlath (Newtown) 6:03.72, 20. Chris Fragoso (Newtown) 6:22.96, 21. Dave Rothacker (Newtown) 6:23.95.

200 freestyle relay – 1. Brookfield (Max Sackerson, Matt Reiff, Chris Del Casino, Billy Magin) 1:30.57, 2. Pomperaug 1:31.10, 3. New Fairfield 1:34.43, 4. Masuk 1:37.48, 5. Weston 1:39.02, 6. Bunnell/Stratford 1:39.51, 7. Newtown 1:40.82.

100 backstroke – 1. Tim Krompinger (New Fairfield) 55.34, 2. Danny Palmiotto (Brookfield) 55.45, 3. Brendan Deveney (Newtown) 57.56, 4. Kevin Thai (Bethel) 57.65, 5. Dave Ely (Brookfield) 57.72, 6. Anthony Fiore (Newtown) 58.46, 8. Zack Moliver (Newtown) 1:01.24, 9. Mike Parker (Newtown) 1:01.90.

100 breaststroke – 1. Max Sackerson (Brookfield) 1),3.57, 2. Benson Thai (Bethel) 1:06.14, 3. Brent Hyman (Weston) 1:06.19, 4. Jim Janish (Pomperaug) 1:07.47, 5. Ben Smith (Pomperaug) 1:08.13, 6. L. McCormick (Bethel) 1:08.36, 12. Allen Hubbard (Newtown) 1:10.35, 15. Tony Fragoso (Newtown) 1:12.89, 21. Chris Parker (Newtown) 1:16.50.

400 freestyle relay – 1. Brookfield (Danny Palmiotto, Brian Jones, Dave Ely, Billy Magin) 3:18.11, 2. New Fairfield 3:24.32, 3. Newtown 3:27.45, 4. Pomperaug 3:28.63, 5. Bethel 3:33.40, 6. Weston 3:33.87.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

New Britain 69, Newtown 30

It was a tall order and one the Newtown High School girls’ basketball team couldn’t fill.

After opening the CIAC Class LL state tournament with a strong come-from-behind win over Glastonbury on February 28, the No. 15 seeded Lady Nighthawks earned the privilege of facing No. 2 seeded New Britain.

The Lady Hurricanes stormed out to a 16-5 lead at the end of the first period and never looked back. The ‘Hawks battled hard in the second quarter, but the ‘Canes out-scored the locals 34-10 in the second half to run away with the win.

The ‘Canes went on to pound Masuk, 64-48, in the Class LL quarterfinals last weekend.

Newtown – which finished the season at 15-9 overall – had an eight-point effort from Kristi Nowak and a seven-point effort from senior Carly Curran. Christie Iwanicki tossed in five points and senior Ciara Simek added four.

Symone Roberts of New Britain led all scorers with 16, but the ‘Canes also had three other scorers in double figures – Sharnise Beal (14), Julia Fagan (13) and Dominique Stellmacher (12).

New Britain 69, Newtown 30

NEWTOWN (30): Ciara Simek 1 2-4 4, Carly Curran 3 1-3 7, Kacy Foehrenbach 0 0-0 0, Christie Iwanicki 1 3-6 5, Kristi Nowak 3 2-3 8, Darcy Fiscella 1 1-2 3, Casey Frobey 0 0-0 0, Morgan Knees 1 1-2 3, Lauren Ciccomascolo 0 0-0 0, Katie Condon 0 0-0 0, Kelley Tenney 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 10 10-12 30.

NEW BRITAIN (69): Sarah Sideranko 1 0-0 3, Symone Roberts 7 1-2 16, Julia Fagan 6 1-4 13, Mary Siv 1 0-0 3, Sharnise Beal 6 2-2 14, Dominique Stellmacher 6 0-1 12, Cassandra Bell 2 0-0 6, Monika Malec 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 30 4-9 60.

Three-pointers: Sideranko (NB), Roberts (NB), Siv (NB), Bell (NB) 2.