NEW HAVEN – In the midst of some amazing statewide competition, the Newtown High School swim team continued to shine as the 2004-05 season comes to a close.

With new school records in the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay, the Nighthawks finished seventh at the CIAC Class L state championships on Tuesday night at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

Cheshire finished first with 482 points with Xavier of Middletown finishing a distant second with 328 points. The ‘Hawks scored 174 points and finished slightly behind East Lyme (197) and Amity Regional (195).

The 200 medley relay foursome of Anthony Fiore, Jake Maher, Andrew Heller and Chris Jacob came in sixth at 1:44.27 to lead off the Class L finals and with that time broke the school record of 1:45.44 set in 1999-2000 by Kane Kunst, Tim Lux, Karlis Griffiths and Ryan Eberts.

Fiore, Maher, Heller and Jacob had previously broken the Newtown pool record in the event in a dual meet loss to Brookfield.

Then the 400 freestyle relay foursome of Max Barrett, Stefan Toi, Heller and Jacob finished off the meet by taking fifth at 3:25.04, breaking the 24-year-old school record of 3:26.17 set by Glenn Atkinson, Dave Spaulding, Paul Kemna and Mike Gay.

In the event, the ‘Hawks were up against teams like Notre Dame of West Haven, which dropped an incredible eight seconds off its preliminary heat time.

Tough competition, but it was a good day for the ‘Hawks.

In other action –

Toi finished 10th in the 200 individual medley at 2:07.35 while Heller finish 15th at 2:10.36 (Pedro Belinchon of East Lyme took first at 1:58.40); Jacob was eighth in the 50 freestyle at 23.00 (Casey Quake of Amity – 21.45); Bryan Lacouture was 16th in diving with 244.65 points (Dan Mazzaferro of Cheshire – 482.60).

Heller was eighth in the 100 butterfly at 54.33 (Casey Quake of Amity – 51.67); Jacob was sixth in the 100 freestyle at 50.39 while Barrett was 16th at 52.32 (Richard Ulatowski of Notre Dame – 47.48); the 200 freestyle relay foursome of Barrett, Fiore, Maher and Toi was eighth at 1:35.92 (Cheshire – 1:30.69).

Fiore was ninth in the 100 backstroke at 1:00.43 (Francis Frisk Driscoll of Staples – 54.64); Maher was 10th in the 100 breaststroke at 1:05.86 while Toi was 12th at 1:06.64 (Robert Doyle of Notre Dame – 1:00.18).

TEAM SCORES: 1. Cheshire 482, 2. Xavier 328, 3. Notre Dame (WH) 315, 4. Staples 211, 5. East Lyme 197, 6. Amity Regional 195, 7. Newtown 174, 8. Ridgefield 145, 9. Naugatuck 133, 10. Windsor 120, 11. Hall 98, 12. Fitch 96, 13. Simsbury 93, 14. South Windsor 79, 15. Farmington 61, 16. Newington 56, 17. Bulkeley 32, 18. Masuk 22, 19. Conard 22, 20. New London/Montville 17, 21. West Haven 4.