By Kim J. Harmon

GUILFORD – They used the Guilford Wrestling Tournament on Saturday as a gauge to determine where they were heading in the 2000-2001 season and the Nighthawks – judging from the first-place finish by Matt Sullivan, the second-place finish by Dan Maley and the third-place finishes by Steve Selezan and Jon Read – are certainly heading in the right direction.

“The competition was very difficult,” said head coach Alan Potter. “We used the tournament as a gauge to see where we are and even though we know we have work to do, we’re definitely on the right track.”

Sullivan claimed first in the 119-pound division with a 4-2 win in overtime. He breezed through the early stages of the tournament before getting locked up in a tough duel in the finals. The match was tied, 2-2, in the first period of overtime before Sullivan – a captain of the 2000-01 team – claimed the title with a two-point takedown.

“Matt wrestled well the entire match,” said coach Potter.

Maley – who earned pins in his two early-round matches – was defeated in the finals of the 135-pound division, 12-5, by a strong wrestler from Fairfield High School.

“His weight was one of the toughest,” said coach Potter, “and in the finals you could see he was wrestling the best wrestler in the tournament.”

For Selezan and Read, the going was just as tough as Selezan had to square off with a former New England Prep School champion and Read was defeated in the semi-finals of the 103-pound division by giving up a takedown in overtime.

As a team, Newtown scored better than it did in the 1999-2000 tournament but still finished in the middle of the pack against teams from Yorktown, Guilford, Fairfield, Hopkins, East Haven, Ward Melville, Platt Tech, Brien McMahon and Brunswick.

Fresh off of the Guilford Tournament and an expected win over Foran on Wednesday night (after presstime), the Nighthawks will be off for a weekend trip to Keene, New Hampshire, for the annual Keene Tournament at coach Potter’s high school alma-mater. Teams from New Jersey and all the New England states will be represented.

“Our goal there is to improve our scores even more,” said coach Potter.

It is a challenging start to the season for the Nighthawks but challenging is okay because the ‘Hawks are expecting big things this season. They got started off on the right foot last week with a 57-25 win over arch-rival Bunnell.

Only three matches went the full six minutes as Read (103), John Dietter (112), and Sullivan (119) opened with pins. Both Read and Dietter pinned their men in the first period while Sullivan earned his pin early in the second period.

At 125 pounds, Ross Alpert dropped a 5-4 decision to Brian Kearney but Nick Feola picked him up with an 18-1 major decision over Sean Abramson at 130 pounds. After Bunnell was awarded a forfeit at 135 pounds, Maley slapped a first-period pin on Rich Moranski at 140 pounds to give Newtown a 29-9 lead.

Later, Adam Prokop (145), Steve Selezan (160) and Tyler Miles (171) all earned pins to give Newtown a 53-13 lead. Angelo Bodetti scored the final pin of the night for the Nighthawks at 215 pounds, dropping Gramm Sisbarra at 1:52 of the first period.

So, after an expected win over Foran on Wednesday night, the ‘Hawks went to 2-0 in the South-West Conference.

Following the Keene Tournament, the ‘Hawks will travel to the Danbury Tournament on Saturday, December 30.

Their next SWC match will be Thursday, January 4, at Stratford.