Sports

Nighthawk Wrestling Team In Rebuilding Mode But Returns Several Postseason Place-Winners

By Andy Hutchison

Published: Dec 12, 2025 7:00 am

Coming off a tremendous season that featured a South-West Conference Championship and second-place finishes in the Class L State and State Open tourneys, as well as a fourth-place finish in the New England Championships, Newtown High School’s wrestling team has a bit of a new look.

This is a rebuilding year, as the Nighthawks graduated eight seniors from last season, but coaches expect the freshman, sophomores, and juniors to make a big impact as they are the future of the program.

“We have high expectations from our two captains. We have a smaller team this year with such a large senior class graduating from last season. We will need everyone to step up for the team. If we wrestle to our capabilities we can accomplish our postseason goals,” Coach Chris Bray said.

The Nighthawks are traditionally among the top teams in the conference and state and have several individuals who place among the top handful in postseason tourneys.

Newtown’s lineup will gain valuable experience as always with challenging meets on the schedule. The Hawks travel across the region to wrestle in large tournaments, including at the Lowell Holiday Tournament in Massachusetts, which brings more than 150 teams. There is also the Eastern States Tournament, which is regarded as one of the hardest tournaments in the country. These are events for the Nighthawk wrestlers to compete against the best outside of the state and to get seen by college coaches.

While there are some voids to fill from last year’s graduating class, there is a large contingent of talented and experienced grapplers back in the fold.

Captains are Antonio Arguello (two-time SWC Champion and two-time State Open runner-up, and 2025 New England runner-up. Also placed second at Pan American Games in El Salvador and sixth at the High School Nationals) and Jake Maddox (two-time SWC Champion and 2024 State Open Champion. Also two-time Class L, State Open, and New England place-winner). Both have earned over 100 wins each during their first two years at NHS.

Returning varsity team members include Owen Blair (SWC Champion and place-winner at the Class L state championships), Ryder Symes (SWC runner-up), and Ty Jorgenson (SWC and Class L place-winner).

Micah Houston, Seamus Getzinger, Bohdan Petryshyn, and Troy Da Silva all are looking to make their mark this season. The Hawks are excited to welcome three accomplished freshman that came through Newtown’s youth program, including Noah Blair, Jake Fattibene, and Rion Lena. All had great success at the state championships and New England tournament in middle school and are expected to make an immediate impact for the high school team.

Newtown is already making its mark in New England. NHS has four wrestlers named in preseason rankings across six states and 170-plus schools: Arguello No 2 at 157 pounds, Noah Blair No 2 at 106, Maddox No 5 at 165, and Owen Blair No 14 at 105.

The regular season begins Tuesday, December 16 when Weston visits at 7 pm. The first tourney is three days later when Newtown visits Lowell at 10 am.

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

Antonio Arguello competes in last year’s SWC Championships. Arguello is a captain with tremendous postseason success under his belt. —Bee Photos, Hutchison

Captain Jake Maddox returns to the mats looking to defend his postseason titles.

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To add context that did not occur at the meeting would not be an accurate representation of the meeting and would, in fact, be editorializing to shape public opinion. The editorial staff here do not consider ourselves to be final arbiters of what the truth is (and if we did, it would make us partisan and biased), and we would need to provide a source for any dissenting information (sourcing all information in an article is literally Journalism 101). There were no such sources present at the meeting in question, and so it would not be appropriate to include such information in an article about the meeting. Dissenting voices appear in meeting stories when there were active participants with dissenting opinions, such as during public participation or the words of a council member who disagreed. It should be noted that the Interfaith Council, like many local boards and commissions, conduct meetings that are open to the public. This was not an article on the actions of the Greater Danbury Area Unites for Immigrants, or on immigrants, or on ICE's actions in the community, where including other voices or perspectives would be appropriate. We appreciate your opinion, but we stand by our meeting coverage and consider this discussion closed.

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Propaganda is the systematic dissemination of information, often biased or misleading, to shape public perception and behavior toward a specific political cause or point of view. I'm not asking for Newtown Bee to editorialize, but providing context, where appropriate, to provide the reader with a more holistic view of the facts seems like a reasonable practice, particularly when encouraging the reader to decide what to believe/not to believe. Absent that context, this feels biased and misleading and intended to shape public perception.

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Nighthawk Wrestling Team In Rebuilding Mode But Returns Several Postseason Place-Winners

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