Newtown High School’s boys’ outdoor track and field team, coming off a tie for the Colonial Division championship with New Milford last spring, is again striving for success in the South-West Conference.

“I don’t coach to lose. I coach to win,” said Coach Becky Osborne, adding that the Nighthawks have a goal of placing among the top three teams in the SWC this season.

New Milford, Masuk of Monroe, and Weston are among the top South-West Conference teams.

The Nighthawks lost 18 team members, including a pair of All State honorees — Brett Deri and Ryan Williams — to graduation last year.

Captains are Jonathan Nahmias (middle distance and hurdles), Justin Halmose (distance), Thomas Hartley (sprints and hurdles), Bob Carroll (throws), Evan Hildenbrand (distance), Aiden Jasinski (jumps), and Ben Albee (sprints).

Other key returnees include Tristan Andrew (decathlete), Neil Coppola (sprinter), Will Hornby (sprinter), Miles Martiska (jumps), Toby Ferris (hurdles), and Ben Nowacki (throws, jumps, and sprints). Max Bloomquist (distance) and Jack Kuligowski (distance) are newcomers who have a strong background in cross country.

“I think our strength is really going to be our depth this year,” said Coach Becky Osborne, who had 97 participants as the preseason continued this week. “It’s going to be exciting to see where everybody fills in the gaps.

“We’ve got a lot of really good athletes and a lot of freshmen. We want to encourage them to catch the track bug,” said Osborne, referring to the newer team members sticking with the program long-term.

The season kicks off on Monday, April 8, when Newtown visits Joel Barlow of Redding to take on the Falcons, along with Notre Dame-Fairfield, and Weston at 4 pm.