What a day it was for Newtown High School track and field at Weston High on May 19. The girls' squad made it three consecutive South-West Conference Championships and the boys, behind Eli Brady's school record-setting triple jump effort, took third place.

Newtown's girls' squad scored 140 points; Weston was second with 116 and Bethel third with 90. Bethel won the boys' title with 196 points, Bunnell of Stratford had 109 points for second and NHS logged 103 points.

On the girls' side, the Nighthawks knew they had a good chance to win yet again.

"We thought that we would have a great opportunity to have a great team performance. The girls competed with amazing tenacity. We had talked about how this meet will feature 18 events and we had opportunities to do well in many of the events," NHS Coach Nick Fraticelli said. "I am so very proud of them all not only for today's team championship but their team first mentality, their attention to details as well as their collective positive culture. In addition to that, the team has always trusted in the process of what we were trying to build this season."

Aashni Shetty was the champ in both the long jump (17-8) and triple jump (34-10) events. Shetty also took second in both the 100 hurdles (15.45) and 300 hurdles (47.73).

Grace Lyons placed third in the 400 in 1:00.13; Racheal Albrecht was sixth in the 400 in 1:01.84 and Lola Kessler eighth in 1:02.73.

Natalie delCampo came in sixth in the 800 in 2:33.01; Clare Csaszar was eighth in 2:39.64 and Nadia Andrew tenth in 2:40.71.

Summer Rose-Chaljub was ninth in the 200 meters in 26.88. Kailyn Lahey took ninth in the 1600 in a time of 5:42.36.

In the 3200 Teegan Svendsen was third in 12:23.60 and Eva Ziemnicki eighth in 12:49.83.

The 4x100 relay team comprising Rose-Chaljub, Jessie Moore, Abigail Manka, and Lola Kessler, was first in 50.89. Newtown's 4x800 team of delCampo, Leah Morris, Csaszar, and Ana Morris was first in 1:04.10. The 4x400 relay of Moore, Kessler, Kelsey Brennan, and Albrecht came in third in 4:15.43.

In the shot-put event Jamie Humphreys was third with a 29-4.25 and Faith Weir came in eighth with a 28-6.25.

Newtown had a trio among the top eight in the discus event with Humphrey's placing fifth with a throw of 91-2, Lily Tullis seventh with an 84-8, and Weir eighth with an 82-7.

The Nighthawks had more solid efforts in the javelin with Tullis taking fourth by throwing 95-9, Mackenzie Penrod fifth with a 92-10, and Humphreys seventh with a 90-3.

In the high jump, Isabella Walder earned fifth and Anna Parsons sixth, each clearing the bar at 4-8.

Newtown had two high-scorers in the pole vault competition as Kessler placed third clearing 9-6 and Csaszar sixth clearing 7-6.

In addition to Shetty's winning jumps the Hawks got big contributions from Violet Assante-LaBash, fourth in the long jump (15-9.5) and third in the triple jump (33-7.5) and Charlotte Miller who came in tenth in the long jump (14-1).

For the boys, Brady won the long jump competition (20-9.5) as well as the triple jump with his school record-setting effort of 44-10. Soheib Dissa won the 1600 (4:20.43) and 3200 (9:44.78). Jayden Taylor was first in the 110 hurdles (15.11) and 300 hurdles (42.30). Derek Jopp came in seventh in the 110 hurdles (18.94).

Orion Lowery was fourth in the 3200 in a time of 9:55.54.

The 4x100 relay comprising Taylor, James D'Amico, Noah Kooper, and Brady, came in fifth in 43.95. The 4x400 team of Jopp, Quinn Velez, Duncan Kolb, and D'Amico placed tenth in 3:48.57. Newtown's 4x800 team of Ubay Dissa, Lowery, Mitchell Greenhaw, and Kolb placed third in 8:32.25.

Guilherme Magalhaes was ninth in the shot-put (39-8.25) and third in the discus (119-5). Tanner Smith was tenth in the javelin (120-4). Owen Sullivan came in third in the high jump with a 6-0. In the long jump, NHS had the sixth through ninth spots: Smith (19-9), Sullivan (19-4.5), Gonzalez (17-5), and Parker Paulos (17-5). In the triple jump Sullivan was fourth (38-2) and Gonzalez sixth (37-3).

"The boys team really came together well today and had an excellent team performance overall," Fraticelli said.

The future of NHS track continues to look good with the Nighthawks standing out in the Froshmore Invitational, held May 10 at Willowbrook Park in New Britain on May 10. The girls and boys were team combined runners up and the girls won the Class L division.

"Really proud of the collective culture that the next generation of tradition displayed at the Froshmore meet. I can see their performances materializing throughout the course of the season and their efforts are really paying off. I am very excited to see all of the amazing things these athletes will do in the rest of their high school experience," Fraticelli said.

The Newtown coach added that it has been a rewarding season with all of the program's athletes.

"It has been a true honor to work with these teams and I am very grateful," he said.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.