Newtown High School’s boys’ swimming and diving team defeated Joel Barlow of Redding 95-70 on Senior Night, February 18. The team is now gearing up — really tapering and shaving — for the start of the postseason.

The South-West Conference championships are scheduled to take place after a bit of a layoff, with the diving competition March 4 at New Fairfield High, and the swimming events two days later at Masuk High in Monroe; both portions of the championship will begin at 6 pm.

Newtown Coach Zach Gauvin said his team swam a lot of season-best times in the regular-season finale — a good sign given the swimmers hadn’t begun the annual workout taper and body shave to be at their best for the postseason.

The past week hasn’t been about decompressing after the end of the dual meet season — far from it.

“We have four of the hardest practices of the year coming up and then we’ll start to rest,” Gauvin said the day after the Barlow meet, adding that the swimmers would top out at about 7,500 yards per practice during the grueling stretch.

They’ve begun the process of tapering back yardage in practice to ready themselves for the SWC and subsequent state championship meet.

It stands to be a competitive break for some of the team members, Gauvin notes, since some of the team relay spots are up for grabs.

The SWC boasts three of the best teams in the state: Pomperaug of Southbury, Brookfield, and Weston are the Class L, M, and S champions, respectively, and each will be difficult to overcome in the conference meet.

“It’s good to swim these teams because you tend to rise up to that level of competition,” said Gauvin, whose goal is always to be among the top three schools in the SWC meet.

Newtown is hopeful of being competitive with each of those perennial powerhouses, and the Nighthawks are striving for at least a top-five outcome, while remaining aware that plenty of talent lies throughout other lineups in the conference.

Results From Win Over Barlow

200 yard medley relay: 1. Mike Poulter, Seth Barrett, Matt Argraves, and Curtis Giles, 1:53.45; 2. Matt Hess, Akash Ahuja, Matt Marini, and Sean McCafferty, 2:06.00.

200 freestyle: 1. Tommy Horan, 1:57.11; 2. Andy Braun, 2:00.76; 3. Alex Klang, 2:02.13.

200 individual medley: 2. Peter Fagerholm, 2:15.93; 3. Ahuja, 2:31.16; 4. Brandon Qiao, 2:35.00.

50 free: 2.Hess, 26.30; 3. Giles, 26.32; 4. Marini, 29.62.

100 butterfly: 1. Argraves, 1:00.22; 3. Owen Gray, 1:07.16; 4. Matt Kretz, 1:12.39.

100 free: 2. Layton Harrell, 52.22; 3. Caelan Ritter, 57.78; 4. Klang, 58.07.

500 free: 1. Fagerholm, 4:05.14; 2. Horan, 4:13.75; 3. David Lawrence, 4:28.24.

200 free relay: 1. Harrell, Barrett, Argraves, and Braun, 1:39.37; 2. Klang, Ahuja, Marini, and Sean McCafferty, 1:53.35.

100 backstroke: 1. Poulter, 1:03.09; 2. Giles, 1:06.36; 3. Hess, 1:07.68.

100 breaststroke: 1. Barrett, 1:06.65; 2. Ahuja, 1:15.14; 3. Lawrence, 1:15.16.

400 free relay: 1. Braun, Klang, Argraves, and Poulter, 3:5.88; 3. Fagerholm, Horan, Giles, and Harrell, 3:56.65.