Newtown High School Volleyball, Cross Country, Swimming And Field Hockey Recap

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s girls’ volleyball, cross country, girls’ swimming and diving, and field hockey teams all battled in their respective games this past week. Here are some of the highlights:

Spiking The Competition

The volleyball team, heading into Wednesday’s clash at Bethel (after The Bee sports section went to press) reeled off four straight wins.

The Nighthawks blanked New Fairfield 3-0 (25-10, 25-12, 25-15) at home on Monday evening. Megan Casey had 20 assists and eight aces, Alyssa Finkenstadt had five kills, Abbey Doski compiled ten digs and nine kills and Emma Herring registered eight kills and four aces in the win.

NHS Coach Tom Czaplinski said the mostly young team, comprising two seniors and the rest sophomores, is getting better at communicating and he anticipates that area improving more and more as the season unfolds. A strength, the coach said, is the team’s service game.

“When our serving is on, that’s probably our biggest strength. We’re a great serving team,” Czaplinski said. “We can put it in spots, we can serve for power. The girls have the ability to put it anywhere they want, which is a very helpful thing as a coach because it just makes the matchups easier for us.”

Newtown, following Thursday’s home match with Stratford, is scheduled to visit Weston on October 13 and will return home to face Lauralton Hall on October 14 at 6:30 pm.

Making A Splash

The girls’ swimming and diving team won its third straight meet after wins over Oxford (92-51 on October 2) and Brookfield (107-79 on Monday) and have a record of 3-2 heading into a Friday, October 9, home meet with Joel Barlow at 4 pm.

In the win over Oxford, the Nighthawks recorded first-place finishes as follows:

200-yard freestyle relay: Colleen Carroll, Katie Fragoso, Evelyn Fahey and Zoe Eggleston, 1:56.65; 100 backstroke: Megan Duero, 1:13.66; 400 freestyle relay: Maggie Atkinson, Fahey, Maggie Hoolehan and Alice Delia; 200 medley relay: Duero, Michelle Isabella, Fragoso and Carroll, 2:09.53; 200 free: Atkinson, 2:14.34; 200 IM: Eggleston, 2:38.59; 50 free: Fahey, 28.22; 100 free: Fahey, 1:03.09; 500 free: Atkinson, 6:02.56; Diving: Kate Martinelli, 112.35.

Against Brookfield, Newtown’s winners were as follows:

400 free relay: Fahey, Carolyn Fagerholm, Bianca Solono and Abby Fagerholm, 4:13.12; 200 IM: Megan Baylis, 2:30.37; 50 free: Kelsey McEvoy, 27.10; 500 free: Krysta Gates, 6:00.44; Diving: Liz Poeltl, 142.8.

On The Run

The Newtown girls’ cross country team, on Tuesday, defeated Pomperaug (16-44) and Joel Barlow (15-50) to remain unbeaten (11-0) thus far. The top four finishers were Nighthawks and 11 of the fastest 15 runners wore blue and gold.

Anne Martino was first in 20:01, Erin Begg placed second in 20:31, Katie Burns was third in 20:45, Mara Scallon was fourth in 21:04. Newtown’s Lilly Rodriquez (22:20) and Dani Villa (22:26) were sixth and seventh. Hanni Bruamaghim placed 11th in 23:17, Scarlett O’Sullivan was 12th in 23:40, Katy Howell was 13th in 23:53, Faith Mangiafico was 14th in 24:06 and Kaitlyn Connolly was 15th in 24:10.

The boys’ team defeated Joel Barlow (26-33) and lost to Pomperaug (36-20) on Tuesday.

Freshman Jake Feinstein was the first Nighthawk across the finish line, coming across in 17:46, good for sixth place overall.

The last time a freshman finished first for Newtown in the late 1990s when Brian McGovern accomplished the feat, NHS Coach Dave Foss said.

As a whole, Newtown’s pack was strong, with 10 runners finishing between sixth and 20th overall.

Only 56 seconds separated Newtown’s top ten runners. Sophomore Pat Sullivan was seventh overall (17:55), junior Vinnie Brophy was ninth (18:07), sophomore Dieter Gutbrod was 11th (18:12), senior captain Andrew LaMarche was 14th (18:24), sophomore Palmer Lintz was 15th (18:26), and junior Austin Baldour was 16th (18:32).

Field Hockey Drops Two

Newtown High’s field hockey team suffered two straight 1-0 shutouts this past week, falling to New Fairfield on October 1 and losing to Pomperaug in Southbury on Tuesday in a rematch of last year’s South-West Conference championship game, won by Newtown.

The Nighthawks (4-3) return to action Friday, October 9 to host Lauralton Hall and Monday to take on Haddam-Killingworth (both games are at 4 pm at Treadwell Park).