By Kim J. Harmon

It’s hard to figure how the 2004-05 year could get any better for the Newtown High School sports program, but it does.

Alex Konneker and Marcus Tracy captured CIAC Class LL individual state championships with spectacular runs in their respective 400-meter dashes last week at Manchester High School. On top of that, Jill Tanner and Emily Fields earned CIAC girls’ tennis All-State honors by reaching the quarterfinals of the State Open tournament.

See – it keeps getting better and better.

BOYS LACROSSE

Joel Barlow 8, Newtown 2

In the face of impossible odds, the Newtown High School boys’ lacrosse team nevertheless gave the best effort they possibly could.

With just two teams in the South-West Conference signified as Division I – Newtown and Joel Barlow – the Nighthawks knew right from the first day of practice that they would be appearing in the SWC D-I championship game.

Trouble was, Joel Barlow finished the season at 11-5.

Newtown finished at 3-13.

And back on May 5, the Falcons pinned a 14-3 defeat on the Nighthawks. So, the prospects were not good on June 1 at Pomperaug High School in Southbury but despite the very long odds, the ‘Hawks played an inspired game – though eventually dropping an 8-2 decision.

“We were blown out by Barlow earlier in the year and we’ve had a tough year,” said head coach Brian Micena, “but they really showed up today and left it all out there. I’m proud of them.”

It took the Falcons nearly nine minutes to score their first goal, but quickly followed with another to take a 2-0 lead heading into the second period. They scored a third early in the period before Grant Speer put the ‘Hawks on the board off a feed from Brendan O’Connor.

Down 3-1, the ‘Hawks slipped into a two-minute span – the only two-minute span in the game – where the Falcons dominated play. Goals at 10:26, 9:25 and 8:48 gave the Falcons a comfortable five-goal margin, 6-1.

The ‘Hawks shut the Falcons down in the third, but then surrendered two goals in the fourth period at 6:51 and 3:33 before Speer – with 1:21 left to play – once more reached the back of the cage.

“Considering how long we were on defense, the defense did a really good job,” said coach Micena. “We played physical and didn’t give up an easy goals.”

After boasting one of the most explosive offenses in the state for the past few years, the ‘Hawks scored just 92 goals in 17 games – just once scoring more than 10 in a game. The ‘Hawks closed the season at 3-14 with a five-game losing streak.

Joel Barlow 8, Newtown 2

GOALS: Newtown – Grant Speer 2; Joel Barlow – Adam Lanehart 4, Kevin Kelly, Alex White, Nick Fletcher; Kevin Donahue. ASSISTS: Newtown – Brendan O’Connor; Joel Barlow – Chris Distler 2, Kelly 2, Kyle van Oostendorf, Fletcher. SAVES : Newtown – Drew Harmata 14; Joel Barlow – Anthony Tenore 5.

TRACK AND FIELD

Girls 9th in Class LL

Boys 17th in Class LL

Alex Konneker had to get to a soccer game.

Marcus Tracy wasn’t even sure he could compete.

But all those two Newtown High School track and field stars did last week was to take first-place in their respective 400-meter dash events at the CIAC Class LL state championships at Manchester High School.

As a team, the Newtown girls finished 9th and the Newtown boys finished 17th.

Konneker breezed to a 57.78 finish in the 400 and easily out-paced Elsa Millet of Manchester by almost two seconds. Konneker went on to finish 10th in the 400 at the State Open with a slightly slower finish of 59.73.

Tracy had been limited for the past couple of weeks due to a balky hamstring, but that didn’t stop the Wake Forest soccer recruit from taking to the track. With a blistering seed time of 47.90 ranking him first in the class, Tracy went 49.17 and beat Steven Rochester of Danbury to the finish line by less than a half-second. Martin Pugliese of Xavier also broke 50 seconds, slipping in at 49.98.

In other events –

For the girls, Sadie Ball was third in the 800 at 2:22.51 (almost two second behind Alison Lemire of East Hartford) and fourth in the 1,600 at 5:19.08 (almost seven seconds behind Kristen Mitchell of Glastonbury. Ball went on to finish 10th in the 800 at the State Open at 2:21.39 and 11th in the 1,600 at 5:22.79.

Julie Landin was 22nd in Class LL in the 200 dash at 28.55; Elise DeRoo was 14th in the 3,200 at 12:43.24; Jackie Curran was fourth in the high jump at 5-0; Lindsay Weber and Quincey Blanchard were 13th in the high jump at 4-8; Leah Herity was eighth in the pole vault at 8-0; Ciara Simek was 19th in the long jump at 14-3 and 12th in the triple jump at 31-3.25; Siobhan Cooper was 13th in the shot put at 31-4.75; Jessica Cosgrove was seventh in the discus at 102-9; Remy Ball was 9th in the 800 at 2:31.14; the 4x100 relay team of Blanchard, Leah Herity, Lucy Manos and Alison McEmber was 17th at 54.84; the 4x400 relay team of Remy Ball, Sadie Ball, Landin and Manos was sixth at 4:17.60; and the 4x800 relay team of Whitney Allison, Remy Ball, Jen Brill and Darcy Fiscella was 10th at 10:20.30.

For the boys, Ryan Davies was 25th in the 200 at 24.34; Brian Miles was 22nd in the 400 at 53.89; Chris DeRoo was 18th in the 800 at 2:06.29; Scott Nichols was 34th in the 800 at 2:09.32; Charlie Baldour was eighth in the 1,600 at 4:35.19; Pete Dittmar was eighth in the 3,200 at 9:58.93; Alister Ratcliffe was 10th in the 3,200 at 10:04.49; Eric MacKnight was 13th in the 3,200 at 10:12.33; Liam Cawley was 17th in the 110 high hurdles at 17.01; Jeff Lipnick was 15th in the 300 intermediate hurdles at 44.18; the 4x100 relay team of Davies, Nick Mentesana, Kevin Quinn and Dan Tichon was 19th at 46.95;  the 4x400 relay team of DeRoo, Dittmar, Mike Nastri and Quinn was 19th at 3:46.81; the 4x800 relay team of Matt Cole, Dittmar, Ryan Kraft and MacKnight was 15th at 8:47.59; Tyler von Oy was 10th in the shot put at 46-1; Mike Cash was 17th in the shot put at 43-2.25; and Ryan Peters was 17th in the discus at 115-05 and eighth in the javelin at 144-07.

The full results –

GIRLS

TEAM SCORES –1. Danbury 92.50, 2. Wm. Hall 77, 3. Hamden 60, 4. Manchester 56, 5. Norwich Free Academy 51.33, 6. (tie) New Britain and South Windsor 40, 8. Amity 35.33, 9. Newtown 32.50, 10. East Hartford 32, 11. Norwalk 31, 12. Shelton 27, 13. Glastonbury 25, 14. Wilbur Cross 24, 15. Greenwich 21, 16. Stamford 20, 17. Fairfield Warde 12, 18. Southington 10, 19. Trumbull 7, 20. Cheshire 4, 21. West Haven 3, 22. Westhill 0.33. 

Track Events

100 – 1. Walton (Danbury) 12.41, 2. Brown (Norwalk) 12.50, 3. Dillon (South Windsor) 12.78, 4. Hogan (Wm. Hall) 12.89, 5. Hundley (Hamden) 12.94, 6. Morgan (Hamden) 13.00, 7. Boyd (Danbury) 13.01, 8. Konneker (Newtown) 13.10.

200 – 1. Brown (Norwalk) 26.23, 2. Walton (Danbury) 26.50, 3. Royes (New Britain) 26.75, 4. Hay (Norwalk) 26.83, 5. Hogan (Wm. Hall) 27.11, 6. James (East Hartford) 27.41, 7. Jaber (Trumbull) 27.43, 8. Harper (Trumbull) 27.50.

400 – 1. Konneker (Newtown) 57.78, 2. Millett (Manchester) 59.25, 3. Edwards (South Windsor) 1:00.12, 4. Ortiz (Wilbur Cross) 1:01.02, 5. Royes (New Britain) 1:01.27, 6 Teel (Hamden)1:01.30, 7. LeBuffe (Wm. Hall) 1:01.57, 8 Kline (Danbury) 1:01.69.

800 – 1. Lemire (East Hartford) 2:21.00, 2. Glenney (Norwich Free) 2:22.17, 3. S. Ball (Newtown) 2:22.51, 4. Spilka (Hamden) 2:23.75, 5. Szondy (Shelton) 2:26.80, 6 Olson (Glastonbury) 2:28.37, 7. Scott (Greenwich) 2:29.16, 8. Walther (Cheshire) 2:30.93, 9. R. Ball (Newtown) 2:31.14.

1600 – 1. Mitchell (Glastonbury) 5:12.20, 2. Haerizadeh (Amity) 5:16.63, 3. Dinnan, (Hamden) 5:18.78, 4. S. Ball (Newtown) 5:19.08, 5. Lightowler (Amity) 5:22.47, 6. Beam (South Windsor)5:22.70, 7. Karkut (Shelton) 5:25.88, 8. Harris, (Glastonbury) 5:26.05.

3200 – 1. Krieger-Redwood (Greenwich) 11:21.21, 2. LeBuffe (Wm. Hall) 11:34.47, 3. Dobbin (East Hartford) 11:40.21, 4. Dinnan (Hamden) 11:52.11, 5. Joly (Norwich Free) 11:57.62, 6 Haerizadeh (Amity) 12:03.67, 7. Forzley (South Windsor) 12:06.47, 8. Watson (Manchester) 12:18.56.

100 high hurdles – 1. Sims (Manchester) 15.77, 2. Shaw (South Windsor) 16.05, 3. Meurice (Hamden) 16.17, 4. Wallace (South Windsor) 16.69, 5. DeLos Angeles (Greenwich) 16.84, 6. Rivera (Wilbur Cross) 17.25, 7. O’Gorman (Wm. Hall) 17.68.

300 intermediate hurdles – 1. Meurice (Hamden) 45.91, 2. Rivera (Wm. Hall) 47.42, 3. Sims (Manchester) 48.54, 4. DeLos Angeles (Greenwich) 48.61, 5. Everson (Hamden) 48.98, 6. Koether (Amity) 49.21, 7. Shaw (South Windsor) 49.64, 8. Meisner (Trumbull) 50.12.

4x100 relay – 1. Danbury (Baptiste, Shahiba, Boyd, Nyri, Calle, Katherine, English, Brianna) 49.21, 2. New Britain 49.72, 3. Hamden 49.72, 4. South Windsor 50.16, 5 Norwalk 50.75, 6. East Hartford 50.95, 7. Trumbull 51.38, 8. Cheshire 52.33, 17. Newtown (Blanchard, Quincy, Herity, Leah, Manos, Lucy, McEmber, Alison) 54.84.

4x400 relay – 1. Danbury (Calle, Katherine, Dorcemus, Deborah, English, Brianna, Kline, Lauranne) 4:07.01, 2. Manchester 4:10.17, 3. Wm. Hall 4:12.20, 4. Amity 4:15.05, 5. East Hartford 4:15.08, 6. Newtown (Ball, Remy, Ball, Sadie, Landin, Julie, Manos, Lucy) 4:17.60, 7. Shelton 4:18.20, 8. Trumbull 4:19.22.

4x800 relay – 1. Amity (Boppert, Leslie,Buechel, Judith, Cambria, Joanna, Haerizadeh, Sonia)40.50, 2. Wm. Hall 9:44.95, 3. East Hartford 9:48.83, 4. Shelton 9:49.51, 5. Manchester 9:51.94, 6. Glastonbury 9:52.93, 7. Hamden 9:56.13, 8. Danbury (Dobush, Alex, English, Brianna, Hufnagel, Liz, Kluge, Molly) 10:16.05.

Field Events

High Jump – 1. Dalidowitz (Southington) 5-05.00, 2. St. Louis (Glastonbury) 5-02.00, 3. Flynn (Fairfield WA) 5-00.00, 4. Curran (Newtown) 5-00.00, 5. Pilon (Wm. Hall) 5-00.00, 6. Fan (Norwich Free) 5-00.00, 7. Barwise, Kimberly (Amity) 5-00.00, 8. Glenney (Norwich Free) 4-10.00.33, 8. Keniry (Amity) 4-10.00.33, 8. Littlestone, Allie (Westhill) 4-10.00.33, 13. Weber, Lindsay (Newtown) 4-08.00.

Pole Vault – 1. Sullivan (Norwich Free) 10-00.00, 2. Ringquist (Wm. Hall) 10-00.00, 3. Zilmy (Hamden) 9-00.00, 4. Hufnagel (Danbury) 9-00.00, 5. Nye (Danbury) 8-06.00, 6. Werling (Wm. Hall) 8-06.00, 7. Schindler (South Windsor) 8-06.00, 8. Skidmore (Danbury) 8-00.00, 8. Herity (Newtown)8-00.00.

Long Jump – 1. Allen (New Britain) 17-07.25, 2. Hogan (Wm. Hall) 16-08.00, 3. Mullins (Wilbur Cross) 15-11.25, 4. Kline (Danbury) 15-11.25, 5 Baptiste (Danbury) 15-09.50, 6 James (West Haven) 15-09.00, 7. McIntosh (Cheshire) 15-06.00, 8. Shaw (South Windsor) 15-05.25.

Triple Jump – 1. Allen (New Britain) 35-10.50, 2. Mullins (Wilbur Cross) 34-01.25, 3. Kalla (Wm. Hall) 33-10.00, 4. Ringquist (Wm. Hall) 33-08.00, 5. Hay (Norwalk) 33-07.00, 6. Baptiste (Danbury) 33-02.00, 7. Fan (Norwich Free) 32-06.50, 8. Guyton (Danbury) 32-03.25.

Shot Put – 1. McMillan (Stamford) 44-05.00, 2. Perkins (Danbury) 39-07.50, 3. Borner (Norwich Free) 38-07.50, 4. Musante (Shelton) 36-03.50, 5. Pendzick (Danbury) 36-02.00, 6. Ward (Danbury) 35-00.50, 7. Smith (New Britain) 34-07.75, 8. Crockett (Manchester) 33-05.00, 13. Cooper (Newtown) 31-04.75.

Discus – 1. McMillan (Stamford) 129-05, 2. Borner (Norwich Free) 118-05, 3. L. Crockett (Manchester) 117-07, 4. Perkins (Danbury) 115-11, 5. Ward (Danbury) 110-05, 6. D. Crockett (Manchester) 104-03, 7. Cosgrove (Newtown) 102-09, 8. Collins (Manchester) 101-06.

Javelin – 1. Borner (Norwich Free) 125-01, 2. Crockett (Manchester) 120-05, 3. Xenidis (Shelton) 114-02, 4. Callahan (Fairfield WA) 111-08, 5. Pendzick (Danbury) 106-05, 6. Rossner (Shelton) 104-08, 7. Rivera (Wilbur Cross) 103-07, 8. Martinich (Fairfield WA) 103-03

BOYS

TEAM SCORES – 1. Norwich Free Academy 104, 2. Amity 81.50, 3. Hamden 72, 4. Manchester 58, 5. East Hartford 49, 6. Norwalk 38.50, 7. Shelton 37, 8. New Milford 35, 9. Danbury 32, 10. Xavier 30, 11. Southington 26, 12. Naugatuck 17, 13. New Britain 16, 14. West Haven 15, 14. Cheshire 15, 16. Simsbury 14, 17. Wilbur Cross13, 17. Newtown 13, 19. Glastonbury 9, 20. Bridgeport Central 6, 20. Fairfield Prep 6, 22. Bulkeley 5, 23. Stamford 4, 24. Greenwich 3, 25. Westhill 2, 26. Trumbull 1.

Track Events

100 – 1. Brown (Norwalk) 11.09, 2. Smith (Norwich Free) 11.18, 3. Williams (Bridgeport Central) 11.34, 4. Sheppard (Amity) 11.40, 5. Stefanek (Southington) 11.42, 6. Jones (Greenwich) 11.45, 7 Cimino (Danbury) 11.49, 8. Cunningham (East Hartford) 11.61.

200 – 1. Pitter (Hamden) 22.81, 2. Brown (Norwalk) 22.83, 3. Rochester (Danbury) 22.88, 4. Smith (Norwich Free) 22.88, 5. Stefanek (Southington) 23.03, 6 Rodriguez (Wilbur Cross) 23.03, 7. Clady (New Milford) 23.41, 8. Ardito (Naugatuck) 23.46, 25. Davies (Newtown) 24.34.

400 – 1. Tracy (Newtown) 49.17, 2. Rochester (Danbury) 49.65, 3. Pugliese (Xavier) 49.98, 4. Mosley (Amity) 50.40, 5. Wirtalla (Manchester) 50.44, 6. Rodriguez (Wilbur Cross) 50.64, 7. Zorrilla (Westhill) 50.76, 8. Allen (Norwich Free) 51.27, , 22. Miles (Newtown) 53.89.

800 – 1. Whalen (Manchester) 1:57.95, 2 Padilla (Shelton) 1:58.38, 3. Miclette (Norwich Free) 1:58.46, 4. Jarvis (Bulkeley) 1:58.70, 5. McLean (Wilbur Cross) 1:59.24, 6. Mitchell (Glastonbury) 1:59.56, 7. Brady (Hamden) 2:00.95, 23. DeRoo, Chris (Newtown) 2:06.29, 34. Nichols, Scott (Newtown) 2:09.32.

1600 – 1. Padilla (Shelton) 4:24.78, 2. DeCrescenzo (New Milford) 4:25.36, 3. Robertson (Norwich Free) 4:29.31, 4. McSherry (Amity) 4:31.16, 5. Ahearn (Danbury) 4:32.27, 6. Hope (Shelton) 4:33.36, 7. Socotch (New Milford) 4:35.17, 8. Baldour (Newtown) 4:35.19.

3200 – 1. Zablocki (Xavier) 9:38.69, 2. Edgington (Manchester) 9:39.90, 3. Friedman (Norwich Free) 9:48.71, 4. Vess (Xavier) 9:48.92, 5. Watson (New Milford) 9:52.16, 6. Halstead (Amity) 9:54.68, 7. Sudhoff (Amity) 9:56.13, 8. Dittmar (Newtown) 9:58.93, 10. Ratcliffe (Newtown) 10:04.49, 13. Macknight (Newtown) 10:12.33.

110 high hurdles – 1. Bradley (Norwich Free) 14.21, 2. Johnson (East Hartford) 15.22, 3. Greenhouse (Amity) 15.31, 4. Salim (West Haven) 15.34, 5. Augustine (East Hartford) 15.48, 6. DePaolo (Southington) 15.63, 7. Dellinger (Norwalk) 15.69, 8. Pacific (Danbury) 16.03.

300 intermediate hurdles – 1. Greenhouse (Amity) 39.23, 2. Salim (West Haven) 40.50, 3. Johnson (East Hartford) 41.28, 4. Dellinger (Norwalk) 41.80, 5. Hain (Norwich Free) 41.98, 6. Dietl (Norwalk) 42.24, 7. Solano (Manchester) 42.36, 8. McGonagle (Simsbury) 42.61, 15. Lipnick (Newtown) 44.18.

4x100 relay – 1. Norwalk (Brown, Anthony, Dietl, Chris, Hay, Nickel, Prior, Abe) 42.78, 2. Hamden 42.79, 3. Naugatuck 43.90, 4 Amity 44.05, 5 Danbury (Bourdeau, Steven, Cimino, Mark, Herrington, Kyle, Horn, Yona) 44.15, 6. Manchester 44.16, 7. Southington 44.16, 8. New Britain 44.45, 19. Newtown (Davies, Ryan, Mentasana, Nick, Quinn, Kevin, Tichon, Dan)46.95.

4x400 relay – 1. Hamden (Brady, Frank, Grant, Rodney, Kim, Sang-Bum, Lykes, Jabari) 3:24.42, 2. Manchester 3:24.98, 3. Amity 3:25.38, 4. East Hartford 3:30.46, 5. Norwich Free Academy 3:30.51, 6. Shelton 3:31.33, 7. Fairfield Prep 3:31.48, 8. Xavier 3:31.84, 19. Newtown (DeRoo, Chris, Dittmar, Peter, Nastri, Mike, Quinn, Kevin) 3:46.81.

4x800 relay – 1. Shelton (Guhin, Benjamin, Harrington, William, Hope, Thomas, McDonnell, Kenneth) 7:57.31, 2. Manchester 8:01.32, 3. Glastonbury 8:03.18, 4. Amity 8:10.24, 5. Norwich Free Academy 8:11.87, 6. Xavier 8:12.24, 7. Simsbury 8:17.30, 8. Trumbull 8:20.17, 15. Newtown (Cole, Matt, Dittmar, Peter,Kraft, Ryan, Macknight, Eric) 8:47.59.

Field Events

High Jump – 1. Roberson (Hamden) 6-04.00, 2. Redding (Manchester) 6-02.00, 3. Chambers (Cheshire) 6-00.00, 3. Clarke (Danbury) 6-00.00, 3. Elliott (Norwich Free) 6-00.00, 6. Powell (Hamden) 6-00.00, 7. Armstrong (Simsbury) 6-00.00, 8. Haigh (Amity) 6-00.00, 8 Prior (Norwalk) 6-00.00.

Pole Vault – 1. La Clair II (East Hartford) 12-06.00, 2. Bishop (Norwich Free) 12-06.00, 3. Paradis (Norwich Free) 12-06.00, 4. McCaffrey (New Milford) 12-00.00, 5. Platt (Amity) J12-00.00, 6. Bessette (Manchester) 11-00.00, 6. Bannon (Simsbury) 11-00.00, 6. Shih (Danbury) 11-00.00.

Long Jump – 1. Bradley (Norwich Free) 23-07.75, 2. Powell (Hamden) 22-02.25, 3. Elliott (Norwich Free) 21-10.00, 4. Grant (New Britain) 21-06.00, 5. Ardito (Naugatuck) 21-03.25, 6. Whitley (Wilbur Cross) 21-00.00, 7. McCord (West Haven) 19-11.75, 8. Collins (East Hartford) 19-09.75, 11. Barnes (Danbury) 18-07.00, 13. Lucchesi (Danbury) 17-10.00.

Triple Jump – 1. Bradley (Norwich Free) 48-09.50, 2. Powell (Hamden) 45-10.00, 3. Brown (Naugatuck) 44-09.00, 4. Armstrong (Simsbury) 44-06.00, 5. Brady (Hamden) 44-04.00, 6. Russell (Norwich Free) 44-01.00, 7. Medley (Hamden) 43-07.50, 8. Augustine (East Hartford) 42-04.00.

Shot Put – 1. Wycinowski (Cheshire) 55-07.50, 2. Pet (New Milford) 54-09.00, 3. Borrelli (Hamden) 53-00.50, 4. Silverstrim (Amity) 49-09.75, 5. Lucas (Manchester) 49-06.50, 6. Costeines (Shelton) 48-10.00, 7. Shaughnessy (Norwich Free) 48-09.50, 8. Johnson (Manchester) 47-09.50, 10. Von Oy (Newtown) 46-01.00, 17. Cash, Michael (Newtown) 43-02.25.

Discus – 1. Silverstrim (Amity) 143-11, 2. Brinley (East Hartford) 143-06, 3. Pet (New Milford) 143-04, 4. Manzolillo (Xavier) 143-04, 5. Duccasse (Stamford) 142-06, 6. Fedor (Amity) 137-09, 7. Anderson (New Britain) 135-09, 8. Borrelli (Hamden) 133-01, 17. Peters, Ryan (Newtown) 115-05.

Javelin – 1. Magnoli (Southington) 175-05, 2. Anderson (New Britain) 174-06, 3. Esposito (Amity) 160-05, 4. Rivera (East Hartford) 156-09, 5. Arena (Fairfield Prep) 154-09, 6. D’Angelo (Southington) 152-03, 7. Dresner (Simsbury) 148-08, 8. Peters (Newtown) 144-07.

GIRLS LACROSSE

Hand 18, Newtown 3

Still fresh from its South-West Conference championship win over Joel Barlow, the Newtown High School girls’ lacrosse team got a taste of high-level competition in the State Division I tournament in Madison.

And the Lady Nighthawks – seeded 11th in Division I – were handed a rather perfunctory 18-3 defeat in the first round of the state tournament last Saturday night. The loss dropped the locals to 12-5 overall.

The Lady Tigers scored the first seven goals of the game before Kate Sudby scored off a feed from Karli Beitel. That seemed to get the ‘Hawks going as Casey Frobey – after scooping loose balls – scored back-to-back goals.

But the Tigers – seeded 6th at 18-3 – had an 8-3 lead heading into the halftime break and tacked on 10 unanswered goals in the second half to put the game away.

GIRLS TENNIS

Runners-up at the South-West Conference individual tournament and a spot on the CIAC All-State team – not a bad showing for the Newtown High School girls’ tennis No. 1 doubles team, Jill Tanner and Emily Fields.

Tanner and Fields defeated Debra Fienberg and Elissa Hine of Amity 8-4 in a qualifying match and then defeated Brittany Hoyack and Jessica Schaaf of Old Lyme 8-2 and Kaytee Lozier and Bethany Neill of New Milford 8-2 in their first- and second-round matches.

Lauren House and Lauren Henry of Avon defaulted in the third round, allowing Tanner and Fields to reach the quarterfinals … where they were stopped 6-2, 6-1 by Meghan Gilroy and Kelly Salb of Fairfield Warde.

In other matches –

Lauren Nemeth breezed through an 8-2 first-round win over Aura Seltzer of Amity before falling to Dany Andrade of Suffield 8-4 in the second round. Tara Ryan defeated Jess Marczyszak of Seymour 8-5 in the first round before falling to Rebecca Boas of Staples 8-5 in the second round.

BOYS TENNIS

The Newtown High School boys’ tennis team bid an early exit from the CIAC State Open tennis tournament at Cheshire Academy last week.

Only junior Mike Coster, playing singles for the first time, made it past the opening round as he defeated Ernest Kissi of New Britain 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 before losing 6-0, 6-0 to 12th-seeded Luke Fitzpatrick of New Britain.

Drew Adamek, Newtown’s No. 1, seemed on the verge of making a remarkable comeback after losing his first set 6-1 against Richard Kramer of Amity. Adamek ran up a 4-2 second set lead and was up 40-love at four-all, but ultimately lost 6-1, 6-4.

Freshman Mario Roehrs, also making his singles debut, staged a fine comeback, too. Down 6-0, 4-0 to William Dayton of East Hartford, Roehrs won the next three games before bowing 6-0, 6-3.  Fellow freshman Baj Ahtchi, another newcomer to singles, mounted a strong second-set challenge as well but was beaten by Andrew Bayuk of Southington 6-1, 7-5.

The only Newtown doubles entry, Dave Wilkins and Ben Wicki, went down to Brian Curry and Daryl Jones of Manchester 6-0, 6-0.

“We were not at full strength for the tournament,” said head coach Marty Margulies. “Chris Martin, Chris Meier and Max Margulies, as well as doubles player Jim Wilkins, who normally teams up with Coster, were unable to attend. Considering this, we made a very respectable showing, and should do even better next year, when all of our players will return except for graduating senior captain Chris Martin.”

BASEBALL

Newington 4, Newtown 0

It was the team’s first trip to the CIAC state tournament in seven years and it was over too soon.

The Newtown High School baseball team opened the CIAC Class LL state tournament last week and dropped a 4-0 decision to No. 15 seed Newington. The game was scheduled for Tuesday, May 31, and the Nighthawks made the long trip to Newington but a fast-moving thunderstorm forced a one-day postponement.

The following day, Steve Marks put together a complete-game effort and scattered five hits, but was reached for a pair of runs in the first and a pair of runs in the fifth. The locals collected six hits of their own, but were unable to scratch out any runs against Matt Knight.

The ‘Hawks – who also played in the South-West Conference tournament for the first time since 1998, losing to Bunnell – completed the 2005 season at 12-10.

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