Newtown High School's gymnastics team competed in its first two meets of the campaign, January 13 and 16. The Nighthawks placed second in both competitions behind several stellar individual efforts on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor.

In the season-opener, the Hawks took on Oxford and New Milford, at Newtown's home venue, Kinetic Kids in Oxford.

In a very close meet, New Milford won with a score of 129.65, Newtown had 127.3, and Oxford placed third with 127.

Emily Baktis of Oxford and Mikayla Dumas of New Milford tied for first in the all around with scores of 34.3. Newtown's Ally Kenny was runner up with a 32.95, Maddie Jannott placed fifth with a 31.25, Sarah MacMullan came in seventh with a score of 29.9, and Olivia Brosnan was in eighth with a 29.7.

Brosnan was second on the vault with a score of 8.3, MacMullan tied for third with an 8.2, and Jannott was fourth with an 8.15. On bars, Kenny came in second with a score of 8.5, and Mary Locke placed fifth with a score of 7.9. On beam, Casey Sullivan tied for third with an 8.4, and MacMullan was fifth with an 8.0. The floor routines included Kenny's third-place finish with a score of 8.65, Jannott placing fifth with an 8.5, and Locke earning a tie for seventh with an 8.0.

Also competing for Newtown were Kylie Giroux on floor, Monika Mihok on vault, and Liz Marcinek on beam.

The Nighthawks returned to action on for their first road meet, three days later, against Oxford, Fairfield Warde, and Joel Barlow of Redding, at Fairfield's Gymnastics and Cheerleading Academy of Connecticut.

In another nail-biting competition, Oxford was first with a 122.850 and Newtown came in second with a 121.350. Joel Barlow was third with a score of 114.150 and Warde placed fourth with a 111.000.

Baktis won the all around with a score of 33.6, Kenny came in third with a 31.8, MacMullan placed seventh with a 29.850, and Brosnan was ninth, recording a score of 28.450.

Kenny took the top spot on bars with a score of 8.1, and Jannott tied for sixth with a 7.050. On vault, MacMullan and Brosnan tied for fourth with scores of 8.2. Kenny tied for fourth on beam with a 7.9, and Sullivan placed sixth with a 7.8. Kenny came in third on floor with an 8.0.