It was quite a finish for Newtown High School’s girls’ swim team, which earned eighth place in the State Open, at Cornerstone Aquatics Center in West Hartford on November 21. Among the highlights were a pair of top-five event finishes by Brianna Deierlein and a record-breaking effort by the tenth-place 200 yard medley relay squad.

Newtown scored 215 points to finish near the top among 49 teams to score points in the statewide competition. Greenwich won the event with 505.5; Darien was the next-closest competitor with 377.

The Nighthawk swim and dive team previously had top-five team finishes in both the conference and state meets.

“We are so proud of this team for the results during the postseason. We had such a successful postseason — third at the South-West Conference Championships, fourth at Class L Finals, and now eighth at State Opens — and these kids keep amazing us with their work ethic and results,” Newtown Coach Becky Osborne said. “They are truly a special group of swimmers and divers and we are so happy for them.”

The medley relay team started things out by bettering its own school record time as Deierlein, Cate Fischer, Grace Fischer, and Alexa Kwarcinski finished in 1:51.40.

Deierlein placed fifth in the 200 freestyle, clocking in at 1:53.94. Norah Kolb came in 18th in the 50 free in 24.92. In the 100 free, Shayna Millard and Kolb finished 15th and 16th with times of 54.24 and 54.34.

The 200 free relay of Kwarcinski, Diellza Limani, Millard, and Kolb came in eighth in 1:40.34.

Deierlein was third in the 100 backstroke event with a time of 57.21; Millard came in 18th in the 100 backstroke in 1:01.05.

Newtown had two finishers in the 100 breaststroke race as Grace Fischer placed 18th in 1:08.51 and Kwarcinski came in 22nd, making her final touch in 1:09.69.

The 400 relay of Kolb, Limani, Millard, and Deierlein finished things off with an eighth-place result, with a time of 3:37.74.