By Kim J. Harmon
By Kim J. Harmon
The Nighthawks knew there wouldnât be enough excitement generated from the actual confrontation with Jonathan Law on Tuesday night â after all, the Lawmen were way overmatched â so the âHawks created some of their own.
Alyssa von Oy, the defending South-West Conference diving champion and CIAC Class L runner-up, showed everyone that a fall ankle injury hasnât slowed her down by breaking the old boysâ diving record, set back in 1976 by Larry Newquist, with a stunning 248.15-point performance.
Von Oy had come close to the record last week, with a 244-point performance in the season-opening win against West Haven, but finally did it on Tuesday, eclipsing the old mark with a 6.5, 6.0, 6.5 score on her final dive, which had a 2.3 degree of difficulty.
And von Oy is just the front man on what has to be the best diving squad in the SWC - with Greg Simoneau (183 points on Tuesday), Greg_Taylor (137.90 points last week), and Kyle Neidig (148.80 on Tuesday) offering a lot of backup.
Besides diving, there was even more excitement to be found on the pool deck for the Nighthawks, who took their 2-0 record into a meet with Trumbull on Wednesday night (after press time).
Like the 200 medley relay event, where head coach Brian_Reiffâs best foursome of Kane Kunst, Tim Lux, Doug Johnston and Ryan Eberts got together and took their first crack at the record board . . . falling about four seconds shy of the pool record and five seconds shy of the school record.
Like the 50 freestyle event, which was a spectacular run off between Ryan Eberts in Lane 3, Karlis Griffiths in Lane 1, and Tim Lux in Lane 5. Eberts touched out Griffiths by 1.34 seconds while Griffiths touched out Lux by .07 seconds as the trio came in 1-2-3.
Like the 100 butterfly where Doug Johnston out-touched Mark Kalb by just .91 seconds.
Like the 200 freestyle relay event, where the Newtown A and B relay teams had their own spirited race going on, with Eberts in the A and Kunst in the B getting off the blocks in the final leg at almost the exact same time and then Eberts touching out Kunst after the 50-yard leg by just .07 seconds.
The âHawks â who finished in second at the annual Wappingers Fall Invitational in Newburgh, New York this past weekend (minus Kunst) â generated that excitement on their own but the schedule itself will start to help in that regard. It wonât get much tougher than Trumbull and Watertown when it comes to non-conference meets, and then comes an SWC meet â the first in the year 2000 â with arch-rival Bunnell on January 4.
Oh yes, plenty of excitement in store for the Nighthawks.
Here are some of the highlights of the first two meets:
Newtown vs West Haven
200 medley relay
1.      Newtown      1:54.37
(Fries, Lux, Griffiths, Johnston)
2.      West Haven  2:07.27
3.      Newtown      2:09.75
(Robinson, Peyton, Chion, Kalb)
200 freestyle
2.      Ryan Eberts  2:01.50
4.      Ryan Eberts  2:20.10
200 individual medley
1.      Kane Kunst  2:08.00
2.      Mark Kalb    2:39.32
50 freestyle
1.      Karlis Griffiths        25.52
3.      Jeff Heller    26.22
5.      Brian Kotwicki        28.09
Diving
1.      Alyssa von Oy        244.95
2.      Greg Simoneau        171.05
3.      Greg Taylor  137.90
100 butterfly
1.      Mark Kalb    1:11.54
2.      Jeff Heller    unavail
3.      Greg Chion   1:16.72
100 freestyle
2.      Brian Kotwicki        1:03.00
500 freestyle
2.      Kathleen Sharf        6:43.42
3.      Garret Swink 6:48.94
200 freestyle relay
1.      Newtown      1:45.82
(Eberts, Kotwicki, Heller, Griffiths)
3.      Newtown      2:10.75
(Swink, Byers, Yacashin, Sharf)
Newtown began swimming unofficially with the 100 backstroke
Newtown vs Jonathan Law
200 medley relay
1.      Newtown      1:51.38
(Kunst, Lux, Johnston, Eberts)
2.      Newtown      2:14.00
(Blanchard, Chion, Kalb, Griffiths)
200 freestyle
1.      Kane Kunst  2:13.00
2.      Kathleen Sharf        2:17.28
3.      Mark Kalb    2:20.84
200 individual medley
1.      Doug Johnston        2:30.70
2.      Joe Blanchard 2:38.68
3.      Greg Chion   2:45.93
50 freestyle
1.      Ryan Eberts  24.59
2.      Karlis Griffiths        25.93
3.      Tim Lux       26.00
Diving
1.      Alyssa von Oy        248.15
2.      Greg Simoneau        183.00
3.      Kyle Neidig  148.80
100 butterfly
1.      Doug Johnston        1:09.53
2.      Mark Kalb    1:10.44
3.      Jeff Heller    1:16.88
100 freestyle
1.      Kane Kunst  53.53
2.      Kathleen Sharf        1:05.02
3.      John Modzelewski    1:08.34
Newtown began swimming unofficially with the 500 freestyle