NHS Swim Team Satisfied With Third In SWC

By Andy Hutchison

MONROE — With powerhouse Pomperaug High pretty much a lock to win the championship and Brookfield a likely runner-up candidate, third place essentially became Newtown’s first place at the South-West Conference Boys’ Swimming & Diving Championships at Masuk High on February 26.

The Nighthawks achieved what they had hoped to accomplish, earning that third-place finish in the 11-school conference meet.

Newtown, with 345 points, beat out the fourth-place Joel Barlow-Immaculate co-op team. Pomperaug earned its third straight conference crown with a whopping 687 points. Brookfield was a distant second with 391.

Most of Newtown’s 30-plus swimmers (including the three relay teams) recorded their best times of the campaign.

“That’s all you can ask for,” NHS Coach Matt Childs said.

The coach was thoroughly pleased — and somewhat surprised — with his swimmers’ results. After all, 11 graduates left some pretty big holes to fill this year. The underclassmen progressed impressively, the coach said, as the season unfolded.

“We swam very, very well,” Childs said. “If you had told me at the beginning of the year that we would swim like we swam today I would never have predicted that. … They swam really well in a tough meet.”

Childs believed his team would be a top-five finisher and although Newtown had no first-place results, the Nighthawks scored enough points to finish as well as the blue and gold could have hoped.

Newtown junior Luke Fiore was second in the 100-yard freestyle. He finished with a finals time of 50.37 (good for 19 points). New Milford’s Alex Beiber was first in 49.04.

NHS junior Alex Kron placed third in the 100 backstroke (58.07).

Two of Newtown’s relay contingents placed in the top three. The 200 freestyle relay group of Chris Parker, Fiore, senior Tony Fragoso, and sophomore Mike Hubbard placed second (1:33.82).

The 200 medley relay team, comprising Kron, Hubbard, junior Matt Iassogna, and sophomore Abben Hung, was third (1:46.84).

Kron was sixth in the 200 free (1:55.20); Fiore was seventh in the 200 IM (2:08.52); sophomore Conor Donnelly was tenth in the 500 free (5:16.76); Hung (24.01) and Hubbard (24.30) were eighth and ninth, respectively, in the 50 free; Iassogna was ninth in the 100 butterfly (58.68); and Hung (1:06.09) and Patrick Stein (1:06.83) were third and fifth in the 100 breaststroke.

The Nighthawks will compete in state competition in mid-March.

Visit casciac.org for updated schedule information.