By Kim J. Harmon

 

No new school records, no new state records, no state championships and just one South-West Conference championship – hey, no one really expected a repeat of the kind of phenomenal success Newtown High School enjoyed in the fall of 2002 (101 wins and three conference championships), but the fall of 2003 was still pretty close.

Read on –

[89 total wins.

[A second consecutive SWC championship for the girls’ cross country team.

[An undefeated dual meet season for the swim team.

[Five All-State selections.

[One All-New England selection.

Yeah … pretty close.

Perhaps the best story of the fall was the remarkable season put together by the swim team – a 12-0 dual meet record made all the more impressive by the thrilling win over Lauralton Hall at the end of September.

The Lady Nighthawks went on to finish second in the SWC championship meet and sixth at the CIAC Class L meet. The team was driven by its young stars – like Abby Atkinson, Sally Tabler, Maggie Hemingway, Maricate Conlon, Liz Gugino, Sami Howe, and Carol Ann Smith.

 Atkinson, a sophomore, was a strong performer all year and at the SWCs she was second in the 200 individual medley and fourth in the 100 breaststroke. The 400 freestyle relay of Robinson, Tabler, Hemingway and Atkinson captured a first-place finish at the SWCs, just four-tenths of a second ahead of Lauralton Hall.

Then again, perhaps the best story of the fall was the second consecutive SWC championship earned by the girls’ cross country team. Finishing the regular season at 14-1, the ‘Hawks topped Joel Barlow (the team that pinned that one loss on Newtown) by only two points to capture the conference title.

Carolyn Brennan finished fourth overall and Sadie Ball finished fifth. Laura Reid, Caitlin Thursland and Leah Herity were the third, fourth and fifth Newtown finishers in the championships. Caitlin Weber and Moira Collier performed well, but did not score.

Ball – a new runner in the program – then went on to finish sixth at the CIAC Class L state meet and earned herself All-State honors in the process.

The boys’ cross country team had an impressive season, too, and although it claimed a second-place finish that was plenty good enough since it was New Milford – the No. 1 team in New England – that took first.

And it was never about beating out New Milford (which claimed six of the top seven slots in the race), but beating out arch-nemesis Pomperaug for second. Peter Dittmar finished 10th overall at the SWCs to lead the ‘Hawks. Phil Zencey, Alistair Ratcliff, Jay Schunter and Chris DeRoos were the next four Newtown finishers.

Guys like Charlie Baldour, Eric McKnight and Ryan Morrissey performed well for the ‘Hawks through the fall and provided a solid foundation for the future of the program.

It was a pretty good fall for soccer, too, even though there was a moderate bit of disappointment associated with the way the boys’ and girls’ were both eliminated from the SWC playoffs (the girls in the semi-finals and the boys’ in the finals).

After such a dominating season in 2002 (with Mike Troy setting school and state scoring records), going all the way to the CIAC Class LL state championship, the boys’ soccer team looked oddly vulnerable – despite a 16-3-1 final record.

Marcus Tracy was having a remarkable campaign for the ‘Hawks before strained medial collateral ligament (MCL) shelved him for the final three weeks of the season. Even so, he finished with 27 goals and earned All-State and All-New England honors.

In the absence of Tracy, the ‘Hawks got a huge boost from players like Rodrigo DeSouza (9-10-19), Brian Conroy (6-3-9), Brian Miles (2-4-6), Marc Doherty (3-3-6), and Justin Miller (2-4-6).

With a stable of young athletes, the girls’ soccer team made its own run at an SWC championship, but was edged in the semi-finals by Immaculate (which would lose to Masuk in the finals and then capture the CIAC Class S championship). Chelsea Morin (12-6-18) and Mary Anders (5-2-7) were two of the best on the team, earning All-State honors. But the ‘Hawks also got tremendous efforts from leading scorer Alex Konneker (8-11-19), Casey Frobey (6-7-13) and Carrie Lipnick (5-4-9) and in no small way were boosted by players like Tara Gaston, Becky Corrigan, Rachel Vontobel, and April Scheuerell.

The ‘Hawks reached the quarterfinals of the CIAC Class LL state tournament, where they were dropped by Danbury, 1-0.

Things did not go as well for the defending SWC champion volleyball team, which opened the 2003 season with four consecutive losses. The ‘Hawks rallied and with a stirring 3-0 win (25-17, 25-15, 25-14) over Lauralton Hall in the regular season finale they qualified for the SWC playoffs.

A 3-0 loss to Bunnell, however, dropped them from the tournament. A week later, Newtown met Bunnell in the opening round of the CIAC Class L tournament and was swept again to end the season at 9-11.

Stephanie Logan had another strong season and would end up signing a letter of intent to attend Quinnipiac College in Hamden. Lisa Morgan and Alia Kemsley played well, too, to lead the ‘Hawks into the playoffs.

The football team got off to a poor start, as well, losing the first four games of the 2003 season before besting New Milford, 14-6, in the annual Boot Trophy game. From that point, the ‘Hawks went 4-1-1 (the loss was to Immaculate and the tie was to Foran) and were on the verge of securing a .500 record … except SWC champion Masuk defeated Newtown, 48-22, in the annual Thanksgiving game.

The ‘Hawks go All-SWC performances from Brett Eastman (eight interceptions), Ross Coates and Ben Bagaglio (a team-high 468 yards rushing). The ‘Hawks did run the ball pretty well, gaining nearly 2,000 yards on the season (with Kyle Kirch turning in the best performance – 182 yards against New Milford), but the Newtown game was weak despite the efforts of John Collins, Marc Ingerman and Josh Rouse.

And despite an All-SWC and All-State season from Amanda Hadgraft (seven goals), the field hockey team finished 4-9-3. There was a lot more offense on the team than head coach Kathy Davey expected, with Meg Regnery scoring five goals and Cat Williams, Amanda Shevlin, Lindsey Coyle and Maggie Boushell scoring one apiece.

The ‘Hawks had some nice wins, but two of their shining moments were ties – a 2-2 deadlock with Masuk (where the ‘Hawks had to rally from an early 2-0 deficit) and a 0-0 tie with Shepaug.

Collectively – no, the fall of 2003 did not approach the historic success of 2002, but it wasn’t bad in its own right.