By Kim J. Harmon

SEYMOUR – ‘Tis the season of good cheer and the Newtown High School swim team got a bit of good cheer Wednesday afternoon when it defeated Seymour pretty handily, 91-68, for its first win of the 2000-01 season.

Kane Kunst was a double winner for the Nighthawks, taking first in the 200 individual medley (2:09.05) and the 100 backstroke (1:01.51). Matt Fries (200 freestyle) and Jeff Heller (50 freestyle) were solo winners.

“We need this,” said head coach Brian Reiff. “We need to feel good about ourselves and take it from there. We mixed some things up to see what these kids could do and so far they’ve done pretty well.”

Even though the Tigers took to the pool deck with just eight swimmers – severely limiting their capability to fill all the lanes – they still had a couple of top flight swimmers like Andrew Michaelson and Jeff Wetowitz to throw into the fray.

Michaelson, whose brother Ben still holds a Newtown pool record in the 100 butterfly (set in 1998), was a winner in the 100 fly and finished just behind Kunst in the 200 individual medley by less than a second.

The ‘Hawks will travel to Stratford on Wednesday, January 3, to battle their arch-nemesis in the South-West Conference, Bunnell, at Flood Junior High School. On Friday, January 5, the ‘Hawks will host Sacred Heart and then, on January 9, will travel to Brookfield.

The results:

Newtown            91

Seymour                        68

 

200 medley relay – 1. Newtown (1:55.58), 2. Seymour (1:55.73), 3. Newtown (2:15.56).

200 freestyle – 1. Fries (N) 2:07.93, 2. Wetowitz (S) 2:08.92, 3. Scharf (N) 2:19.98, 4. Swink (N) 2:21.55, 5. Wells (S) 2:43.76.

200 individual medley – 1. Kunst (N) 2:09.05, 2. Michaelson (S) 2:10.90, 3. Bass (N) 2:51.90, 4. Peyton (N) 2:54.67, 5. Karlack (S) 3:26.10.

50 freestyle – 1. Heller (N) 26.71, 2. Kotwicki (N) 26.77, 3. Morlath (N) 32.68, 4. Gelso (S) 34.08, 5. Karlack (S) 40.69.

100 butterfly – 1. Michaelson (S) 59.39, 2. Heller (N) 1:09.66, 3. Swink (N) 1:10.48, 4. Modzelewski (N) 1:21.18.

100 freestyle – 1. Gelso (S) 54.65, 2. Kotwicki (N) 1:00.18, 3. Robinson (N) 1:05.25, 4. Hatfield (S) 1:08.94, 5. Morlath (N) 1:17.39.

500 freestyle – 1. Wetowitz (S) 5:51.37, 2. Fries (N) 6:13.94, 3. Scharf (N) 6:26.08, 4. Mattoe (S) u.a., 5. Randlov (N) 8:03.56.

200 freestyle relay – 1. Newtown (1:45.88), 2. Newtown (2:02.20), 3. Seymour (2:12.04).

100 backstroke – 1. Kunst (N) 1:01.51, 2. Gelso (S) 1:07.63, 3. Fries (N) 1:08.93, 4. Modzelewski (N) 1:26.64, 5. Gelso (S) 2:08.10.

Newtown swam the 100 breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay unofficially.