By Kim J. Harmon

STRATFORD – When Vinny Nitopi chucked the discus almost nine feet further than he had during the entire season, it was just one small example of how the South-West Conference boys’ track championship meet at Bunnell High School in Stratford brought out the best in the Nighthawks of Newtown.

Nitopi’s toss of 127-11 even had him in first place in the event – briefly – until Capello of Law tossed one 128-3 to capture the title. But Nitopi could hardly have asked for anything more, having set a personal record for himself and qualifying himself for the CIAC Class L meet.

The ‘Hawks could hardly have asked anything more for themselves, either, after finishing third with 52 points – behind Pomperaug (97) and Foran (56), but ahead of teams like New Milford (7th, 41-1/2 ), Joel Barlow (8th, 36) and Masuk (10th, 28), all of whom pinned regular season losses on Newtown.

It was a fine finish.

“I wasn’t sure about the team before practice,” said junior Kyle Tobin, “but after the time trials I knew what we could do.”

Tobin led the way for the ‘Hawks, capturing first – Newtown’s only firsts the entire day – in the 110-meter high hurdles (15.74) and 300-meter intermediate hurdles (40.99). Although he had to be considered the favorite in both events, he knew whom he had to watch out for.

“Last week, (Warren Ross) beat me (in the 110) so it was sort of a revenge thing,” said Tobin, who going low over the hurdles in the trials but much smoother and cleaner in the finals. “I think I had a lot of adrenaline pushing me in the finals.”

Tobin also had his eye on Jonathan Todd of Brookfield in the 300 intermediate hurdles, but as Tobin dusted Ross by 38/100ths of a second in the 110 he dusted Todd by 2.28 seconds in the 300 to earn his two titles.

Tobin also added a sixth-place finish in the 200-meter dash.

The ‘Hawks also received fine performances from Joe Blanchard (fourth in the 800 meters, 2:05.35), Jeff Miller (fifth in the 3,200 meters, 10:33.66), Anthony Mentessana (fourth in the 100 dash, 11.70) and Nitopi (sixth in the shot put, 42-43/4 ).

Both the 4x400 and 4x800 relay teams took fourth for Newtown, while the 4x100 relay team claimed fifth out of the second heat in trials.

TEAM SCORES

1. Pomperaug 97, 2. Foran 56, 3. Newtown 52, 4. (tie) Bunnell and Stratford 48, 6. Brookfield 42-1/2 , 7. New Milford 41-1/2 , 8. Bethel 40, 9. Joel Barlow 36, 10. (tie) Masuk and New Fairfield 28, 12. Jonathan Law 23, 13. Weston, 14. Notre Dame, 15. Immaculate.

TRACK EVENTS

4x100 relay – 1. Foran 45.51, 2. Joel Barlow 45.72, 3. Stratford 45.84, 4. Pomperaug 46.24, 5. Newtown 46.53, 6. (tie) Brookfield and New Milford 46.68.

4x400 relay – 1. Pomperaug, 2. Weston, 3. Joel Barlow, 4. Newtown, 5. Bunnell, 6. Masuk.

4x800 relay – 1. Pomperaug 8:24.73, 2. Bethel 8:26.71, 3. New Fairfield 8:35.35, 4. Newtown 8:35.41, 5. Brookfield 8:36.75, 6. New Milford 8:53.20.

100 meter dash – 1. Dicks (ND) 11.13, 2. Benson (P) 11.58, 3. Natter (F) 11.61, 4. Mentessana (N) 11.70, 5. Smith (NF) 11.71, 6. McDonell (S) 11.79.

200 meter dash – 1. Natter (F) 23.28, 2. Benson (P) 23.30, 3. Smith (NF) 23.53, 4. Looney (JL) 23.89, 5. LaPlante (F) 24.03, 6. Tobin (N) 24.05.

400 meters – 1. Benson (P) 49.0, 2. Craycraft (W) 49.5, 3. Hamill (P) 52.62, 4. Whitman (M) 53.81, 5. Kaufmann (JB) 53.71, 6. Kopp (JL) 53.81.

800 meters – 1. Somok (P) 1:59.14, 2. Leicht (M) 2:02.02, 3. Stiles (P) 2:03.00, 4. Blanchard (N) 2:05.35, 5. Figueroa (NM) 2:05.87, 6. Benson (NM) 2:08.02.

1,600 meters – 1. Somok (P) 4:33.33, 2. Simeone (F) 4:35.35, 3. Mohn (I) 4:37.40, 4. Figueroa (NM) 4:39.53, 5. Panacoast (Bu) 4:42.06, 6. Iwaszkiewicz (M) 4:44.53.

3,200 meters – 1. Perry (Be) 9:59.09, 2. Simeone (F) 10:19.71, 3. Woyoe (JB) 10:23.79, 4. Mohn (I) 10:26.23, 5. Miller (N) 10:33.66, 6. Panacoast (Bu) 10:35.54.

5,000 meters – 1. Harrington (NM)16:48.61, 2. DaSilva (S) 17:00.04, 3. Andreotto (Brk) 17:03.41, 4. Rosasco (P) 17:03.56, 5. Gagan (P) 17:19.69, 6. Gillen (NM) 17:25.03.

110 meter high hurdles – 1. Tobin (N) 15.74, 2. Ross (S) 16.12, 3. Fellone (Brk) 16.43, 4. Fragola (Be) 16.58, 5. Giovanelli (JL) 16.77, 6. Mix (P) 17.45.

300 intermediate hurdles – 1. Tobin (N) 40.99, 2. Todd (Brk) 42.27, 3. Ross (S) 43.11, 4. Fragola (Brk) 43.63, 5. Fellone (Brk) 43.75, 6. DeBroske (NM) 44.47.

FIELD EVENTS

Javelin – 1. Tanucci (S) (158-6, 2. Morrill (NM) 154-10, 3. Perragaix (JL) 154-0, 4. Whitman (M) 153-11, 5. Kyrytschenko (Bu) 152-10, 6. Bugyi (F) 149-2.

Discus – 1. Capello (JL) 128-3, 2. Nitopi (N) 127-11, 3. Stack (NF) 123-10, 4. St. Jacques (NF) 122-0, 5. Bugyi (F) 117-5, 6. Signore (JB) 117-4.

Shot put – 1. Jordan (F) 45-10, 2. Pushteri (M) 44-5, 3. Sapp (ND) 44-41/4 , 4. Signore (JB) 43-91/2 , 5. Regney (Be) 43-9, 6. Nitopi (N) 42-73/4 .

Long jump – 1. Rehm (Bu) 20-31/4 , 2. Tanucci (S) 19-7, 3. Hayes (NM) 19-3, 4. Rodrigues (Bu) 19-2, 5. Burke (Be) 19-11/4 , 6. Burns (NM) 18-111/4 .

Triple jump – 1. Rehm (Bu) 41-33/4 , 2. Deeb (Bu) 40-1-/4 , 3. Burns (NM) 40-0, 4. Wanthier (S) 39-0, 5. Burke (Be) 36-73/4 , 6. Stapleton (I) 38-83/4 .

High jump – 1. Rehm (Bu) 6-0, 2. Burke (Be) 6-0, 3. McCarthy (Brk) 6-0, 4. Kyrytschenko (Bu) 5-10, 5. Paloa (JB) 5-10, 6. O’Connor (W) 5-10.

Pole vault – 1. Todd (Brk) 12-6, 2. Genovese (P) 12-0, 3. Maxwell (JB) 11-6, 4. Diamond (NF) 11-0, 5. Seeley (Brk) 10-6, 6. Daigle (NF) 10-0.