“I was just really focussed,” said senior Kyle Tobin. “I was more focussed than I was all year.”

 

By Kim J. Harmon

NEW MILFORD – Kyle Tobin was focussed on winning the 110- and 300-meter hurdles, the 4x800 relay team was focussed on setting a school record, and coaches Ed Obloj and Carl Paternoster were focussed on leading the Newtown High School boys track team to a South-West Conference championship on Monday.

It didn’t all work out that way, though. Oh, sure, Tobin all but cruised to titles in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles and the 4x800 relay team of Dan Maxwell, Cuyler Bryant, David Rod and Jeff Heller just about obliterated the field and came within four seconds of setting a new school record.

But the Nighthawks – the Colonial Division champions – fell short in their bid to capture an SWC championship when a very strong and deep Stratford team outpaced them by 10 points at the end.

“We went from fourth in our division to first,” said coach Obloj, “so that in itself is an incredible accomplishment. I hate to lose, but Stratford is a pretty powerful team.”

The Red Devils finished with 78 points while the Nighthawks trailed in second at 68 points. New Milford, the only other serious challenger, finished third at 59 points.

And those are the final scores – finalized after several hours of painstaking counting and recounting. It took over an hour after all the events had been completed on Monday for the final tally to come in and since it was so close, a general recount had to take place.

The numbers changed a little, but the end result did not.

It was an emotional finish for a Newtown team that clearly believed it could win a championship even though it had lost to Stratford and tied New Milford during the regular season.

“Not a single kid there had anything left,” said coach Obloj. “They gave it everything they had.”

The meet started out so tremendously for the ‘Hawks, too, as the 4x800 relay team just annihilated the competition. Maxwell exploded off the starting line and Bryant followed suit. By the time Rod got the baton, he was well over 40 meters ahead of New Milford.

All that was left was for Heller to cruise through his 800-meter split to the finish.

The ‘Hawks took first at 8:39.3, almost a full five seconds ahead of New Milford and 14.2 seconds ahead of Foran. Their first-place time, however, was four seconds off a school-record pace.

Then it was Tobin’s turn and it was almost too easy for the senior co-captain as he won both the 110- and 300-meter hurdles for the second consecutive year. First it was the 110-meter high hurdles and in 15.45 seconds he defeated Robbie Waulthier of Stratford (16.19) and Frank Fellone of Brookfield (16.3).

“I had some good competition with Frank Fallone,” said Tobin, “but since I lost to him (during the regular season) I had a vengeance thing going on. I couldn’t let him beat me again.”

Tobin soon followed with a first-place finish in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, coming in a 40.7 seconds – 1.6 seconds ahead of Fallone in second place and 2.3 seconds ahead of Joe Lima of Stratford in third.

In other events:

+ Rod finished second in the 800 meters at 2:06.2, almost four seconds behind James daSilva of Brookfield. Rod had bolted out to a huge lead in the first 400 meters, but ran out of gas with about 200 meters to go.

+ The 4x400 relay team finished third at 3:38.1, less than two seconds behind first-place Jonathan Law.

+ Matt Regan, who had been such a success for the Nighthawks in the weight events all year, took third overall in the shot put with a toss of 42-111/4  feet.

The Nighthawks finished 12-1-1 overall during the regular season, giving themselves first place in the Colonial Division. That, coupled with the second-place finish in the conference championships, measures up to one heck of a season.

“It was an awesome moment,” said coach Obloj.

TEAM SCORES

 

Stratford (78), NEWTOWN (68), New Milford (59), New Fairfield (44), Jonathan Law (41), Foran (41), Pomperaug (37), Bethel (37), Weston (35),  Immaculate (34), Brookfield (34), Bunnell (17), Joel Barlow (10), Masuk (4), Notre Dame (3).

TRACK EVENTS

 

4x800 relay – 1. Newtown (Maxwell, Bryant, Rod, Heller) 8:39.3, 2. New Milford 8:44, 3. Foran 8:53.6.

4x100 relay – 1. New Fairfield 45.3, 2. Pomperaug 45.4, 3. Jonathan Law 45.8.

110-meter hurdles – 1. Kyle Tobin (Newtown) 15.45, 2. Robbie Waulthier (Stratford) 16.19, 3. Frank Fellone (Brookfield) 16.3.

100 dash – 1. Kevin Fraser (Pomperaug) 11.42, 2. Blake Hillyer (New Fairfield) 11.43, 3. Sean Williams (Stratford) 11.52.

1,600 meters – 1. Joe Morin (Immaculate) 4:23, 2. Ryan Pancoast (Bunnell) 4:31, 3. Ken Simeone (Foran) 4:39.

400 meters – 1. Jason Kopp (Jonathan Law)) 51.3, 2. Joe Tanucci (Stratford) 52.2, 3. Eric Koestner (Immaculate) 52.7.

300-meter intermediate hurdles – 1. Kyle Tobin (Newtown) 40.7, 2. Frank Fellone (Brookfield) 42.3, 3. Joe Lima (Stratford) 43.0.

800 meters – 1. James daSilva (Stratford) 2:02.8, 2. Dave Rod (Newtown) 2:06.2, 3. Nick Fraticelli (Immaculate) 2:07.7.

3,200 meters – 1. Ken Simeone (Foran) 9:44.4, 2. Tim Perry (Bethel) 9:50.3, 3. Chris Heath (Bunnell) 10:11.2.

200 dash – 1. Kevin Fraser (Pomperaug) 23.1, 2. Brian LaPlante (Foran) 23.6, 3. Blake Hillyer (New Fairfield) 23.6.

4x400 relay – 1. Jonathan Law 3:36.2, 2. Immaculate 3:36.3, 3. Newtown 3:38.1.

FIELD EVENTS

 

Javelin – 1. Joe Tanucci (Stratford) 160-1, 2. Lain Anderson (Weston) 149-8, 3. Nick Morrill (New Milford) 145-11.

Shot put – 1. Rich Meek (New Fairfield) 43-3-1/2, 2. Steve Morrow (Foran) 42-11-1/2, 3. Matt Regan (Newtown) 42-11-1/4.

Pole vault – 1. Jon Todd (Brookfield) 11-6, 2. Bob Lyon (New Milford) 11-0, 3. Brett Schumate (New Milford) 11-0.

Triple jump – 1. Blake Hillyer (New Fairfield) 40-9-1/4, 2. Robbie Waulthier (Stratford) 40-8-1/2, 3. Russell Debb (Bunnell) 40-7-1/2.

Discus – 1. Matt Dudley (weston) 125-10, 2. Nick Merrill (New Milford) 119-11, 3. Jeremy Keyes (Weston) 114-4.