Newtown High School’s boys’ swimming and diving team split first place decisions between the 12 events with visiting New Milford but also piled up the second- and third-place finishes in a 93-65 win over the Green Wave on February 10. The Nighthawks sealed the team victory with three events to go and exhibitioned the rest of the meet.

“It was a good meet and we were really happy to see quite a few people get personal bests. We’ve been training really hard and for them to do this now bodes well for the postseason,” said Coach Ryan Eberts, whose squad still has two races to tune up for the South-West Conference Championships and state postseason meets.

The Hawks opened the matchup against New Milford with a win in the 200 yard medley relay race as Elias Kolb, Finn Clancy, Kyle Albrecht, and Warren Ache finished in 1:49.09. The team of Beau Clancy, Sam Irving, Bradley George, and Trenton Story took third in 1:56.01.

Alex Gadbut placed second in the 200 yard freestyle race in a time of 1:52.34; Connor Kelly was third in 2:09.95. Irving raced to second in the 200 individual medley in 2:24.33, less than a second behind New Milford’s winning time, and Beau Clancy was third in 2:28.50. Albrecht was second in the 50 freestyle in 23.85; Kolb came in third in 24.37.

In the diving competition, Story was first with a score of 174.65 and Cameron Ache took second with a score of 147.90, just ahead of third-place diver Warren Ache (145.50).

Out of the diving break the Hawks put some distance between the teams on the scoreboard with another one-two-three finish in the 100 butterfly as Albrecht finished in 1:00.28, George was runner-up in 1:05.92, and Kelly earned third in 1:07.47. NHS was up 63-26 in team scoring.

Warren Ache was second in the 100 freestyle race, clocking in at 52.41; Finn Clancy placed third in 52.75. Gadbut was second in the 500 free, making his final touch in 5:08.41; Jack Pettit came in third in 6:02.85.

The 200 free relay contingent of Irving, Jeremiah Stone, George, and Kelly placed first with a time of 1:41.34, narrowly edging teammates and second-place event finishers Finn Clancy, Story, Albrecht, and Warren Ache (1:41.86). The Hawks made it another top-three event outcome with Aitor Suarez, Trent Behr, Collin Schicker, and Lucas Velasco finishing in 1:59.34.

Newtown had the top three swimmers in each of the next two events. In the 100 backstroke race Kolb clocked in at 1:03.69, Beau Clancy finished in 1:04.62, and Ryan Lombard had a time of 1:16.39. In the 100 breaststroke, Finn Clancy had a time of 1:08.68, Irving finished in 1:10.58, and Stone in 1:17.26.

The meet ended with the 400 free relay, and NHS placed second and third behind the quartet of Pettit, Story, Kolb, and Kelly with a time of 3:54.69 and Beau Clancy, George, Cameron Ache, and Brady Wennerholm in 4:18.87.

Newtown will visit Bunnell-Stratford Tuesday, February 17 at 5 pm and host Masuk of Monroe Friday, February 20 at 7 6 pm. For the kickoff to postseason, the SWC diving finals are scheduled to take place at Pomperaug High in Southbury on Wednesday, February 25 beginning at 5:30 pm with the swim events to unfold at Masuk the next evening starting at 6.

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