By Kim J. Harmon

WESTPORT – Although Stratford High School left an emphatic mark on the South-West Conference boys’ indoor track championships last Saturday at Staples High School in Westport (winning the title by 41 points over second-place Bunnell), TJ Maguire and Tony Napoleone of Newtown made sure to leave marks of their own.

Maguire is the new reigning shot put champion in the SWC and he accomplished that with a throw of 39-6 . . . which was just three inches better than Tom Conroy of Bunnell. And Napoleone is the new reigning 50-meter hurdle champion and he accomplished that with a run of 8.30 . . . which was just 2/100ths of a second faster than John Todd of Brookfield.

With David Strong finishing second in the pole vault with a height of 9-6, Steve Ambrogio coming in third in the long jump at 18-111/4  and the 4x240 relay team (Napoleone, Ambrogio, Balmforth and Fullman) coming in third at 2:08.99, the Nighthawks were able to finish fifth overall with 41 points.

Stratford finished first with 118 points while Bunnell (77), Masuk (63) and Pomperaug (61) came in ahead of Newtown.

But no one came in ahead of Maguire and Napoleone.

“It’s always in your head to win,” said Maguire, “but I just went out there to do my best.”

In other events, the 4x800 relay team was sixth at 10:16.23, Ambrogio was fifth (6.70) and Blair Balmforth was sixth (6.81) in the 50-meter dash, Dan Phillips was fifth in the 1,600 meters at 5:19.25, Ryan Shanley was sixth in the 3,200 meters at 12:30.03, and the 4x400 relay team was fifth at 4:10.76.

It was one of the best overall performances by the boys’ indoor track program in years.

Unfortunately, the girls’ indoor track program did not fare as well. Just two years ago, the Nighthawks came home from the SWC championships with their third consecutive team title but last weekend had to settle for sixth place behind Masuk (124 points), Weston (105), Lauralton Hall (60), Bunnell (49), and New Milford (41).

But the ‘Hawks – who scored 31 points in the meet – did get some superb performances from Melanie Murphy, Cara Delvecchio, Whitney Blanchard, Sarah Macknight and Katie Lahey.

Murphy finished third in the 1,000 meters with a time of 3:30.81, which was 14 seconds off the winning time set by Katie Duffy of Masuk. Delvecchio was second in the long jump at 14-71/2 , less than six inches shy of the mark set by Trinka of Weston. Blanchard took third in the shot put at 29-1, almost nine feet behind the stellar mark set by Allison Bradshaw of Pomperaug.

Macknight and Lahey, meanwhile, were the third and fourth legs of the 4x400 relay team that took third at 4:36.09, less than four seconds behind Weston. Delvecchio and Murphy led off that relay for the Nighthawks.

In other events, the sprint medley relay team was sixth at 5:26.68 and the 4x240 relay team was fourth at 2:39.90.