Championships were the theme for the 2019 calendar sports year. Of course, the past 12 months featured plenty of other success stories, including record-setting efforts.

Saving the best for last, what may be the top Newtown sports story (perhaps Connecticut's biggest) of the year took place on December 14 when Newtown High School’s football team won its first state title in 27 years, and did so in ultra-dramatic fashion, on the last play of regulation with a 13-7 win over Darien at foggy Trumbull High.

There were numerous other triumphs, with last winter the most successful of the campaigns for the Nighthawks, including down-to-the-wire win on the wrestling mats.

Let’s turn the clock back to last January and begin there with a look at many of the highlights on the playing fields, courses, mats, courts, and skating rinks.

The year began in style with Newtown High indoor track and field and boys’ swimming teams setting school records. Runner Ally McCarthy set the 800-meter run mark in a time of 2:26.01. In the pool, the 200 medley relay team set a new Nighthawk standard as Xavier Williams, Colby Delia, Michael Annesley, and Rick Irving finished in 1:44.42. Three swim team relays set school marks early in the season.

Records were broken at the youth level as well, with the Torpedoes’ swim team setting numerous marks.

NHS wrestler Nik Accousti was recognized for his 100th career win.

The Newtown Youth Wrestling Association celebrated as the Elementary and Middle School teams won Western Connecticut League Championships.

Children and young adults grab the spotlight but let’s not forget about the adults who help make it all possible. Josh Hull, a longtime baseball coach and fan of everything sports in Newtown, was honored as The Bee’s Sportsman of the Year in January.

Fantastic February

The second month of the year may be the shortest, but it tends to be an exciting one in the sports world with conference championships in several sports. Newtown made its presence felt in a variety of sports, beginning on the first day of the month.

The NHS cheerleading team won the South-West Conference championship in front of the home crowd on February 1.

Newtown High’s track and field teams competed in the SWC championships the next day, and the girls’ squad placed second, led by Carly Swierbut winning two events and breaking her own SWC meet record in the 300, capturing first in that event with a time of 40.78, nearly three seconds faster than her closest competitor.

The Newtown High dance team kept the Blue and Gold accolades coming in as the Nighthawks captured the SWC’s Jazz and Hip Hop division championships on February 4.

Newtown’s gymnastics team claimed the SWC title behind champion and MVP Hannah Jojo on February 7.

Next came the wrestling team’s SWC triumph, with a final match win deciding things on February 15. With Newtown trailing Joel Barlow, Joe Zeller held a commanding 7-0 lead late in the third period but needed to win by eight points for the Nighthawks to overcome Barlow in team scoring. Zeller conceded a point by allowing his opponent to escape, then scored two deciding points on a takedown in the final ten seconds of the bout for a thrilling individual and team victory.

Zeller went on to capture a division title in the Class LL state championships later in February.

This month was a big one for youth wrestling as well. The Newtown Youth Wrestling Association sent 34 wrestlers to the state championships, more than any other town or club program in the state.

But wait ... there was even more Newtown High championship success in February.

The girls’ basketball team defeated Bethel 52-32 to win the SWC title on February 21.

The dance team wrapped up this exciting month by capturing the state Jazz title on February 23.

Marching On

The first day of March provided a nice encore as the NHS swim team won five races on the way to a fifth-place team finish in the SWC championship meet.

Newtown’s cheerleaders placed second in the March 3 state championship.

In mid-March, the Nighthawk football team showed its strength with a second-place finish in the ShopRite Nutmeg Games Annual High School Weight Lifting Competition.

Youth wrestlers made their marks on the New England championship mats with several place winners and a pair of grapplers — Brighton Karvoski and Cole Praissman — winning championships. The youth program coaches earned the Dalton Award for their contributions to the wrestling community.

Spring Success

The Nighthawks began spring sports in grand fashion — with a pair of grand slams. Softball player Angela Carriero and baseball slugger Todd Petersen both hit home runs with the bases loaded in their opening games, which began early, on March 30.

Spring sports had a lot of individual and team accomplishments, highlighted by the NHS boys’ volleyball team capturing its second straight conference title with a win over Joel Barlow on May 24. Before this triumph, there were many success stories, including some in regular-season play.

The baseball team scored nine runs in not one, not two, not three ... but four straight games during its unbeaten regular season.

Anna Malkin took over as boys’ tennis coach at NHS.

On the girls’ court, NHS tennis players Julia Klein and Julia Dolan won the SWC doubles title.

Golfer David Brestovansky won SWC medalist accolades as the SWC’s champion for the second year in a row.

Illegal sticks wiped out what looked like game-winning goals — one by each team — in a bizarre and rare tie lacrosse game between Newtown and visiting Pomperaug of Southbury, a 9-9 deadlock, on April 11.

Cory Benson placed ninth in her division at the Boston Marathon on April 15.

On the lacrosse field, Tucker Garrity set the program record for assists (134) in Newtown High’s 18-1 win over Pomperaug on April 18. Garrity went on to set the all-time points record. He broke the previous total of 312 in an 11-9 win over Bronxville, N.Y., on May 11, finishing the game with 317.

The girls’ track and field team was second in the SWC championships behind numerous personal and school records, and Swierbut’s meet record in the 200 as she cross the finish line in 25.37 seconds.

Newtown High picked up another record on the track as the sprint medley relay team set a new NHS mark in the O’Grady Relays.

Justin Halmose won the Run For Hunger 5K race for the second year in a row and also took home bragging rights in the Holcombe Hill 5K.

Rock Ridge Country Club’s Brian Hussey and Matt Rosengrant won the Connecticut PGA Section Pro-Assistant Championship.

Newtown had representation at the collegiate level, including several who earned recognition for their efforts on the playing fields — and Dave Matthews, who helped the Central Connecticut State University baseball team to a conference title. Newtown was also represented at St Joseph High in Trumbull, where the boys’ lacrosse and baseball teams claimed state championships.

Skiing may be primarily a winter sport, but in the spring, Newtown skier Jordan Conrad won the Mayor of Freedom Award, an accomplishment for his efforts in the North American, United States, and Canadian freeride community.

Sizzling Sports Summer

Sure, school sports slow down a bit in later June through August, but there is always a lot going on.

Swierbut and Brestovansky were honored as the Newtown Bee’s Newtown High School Athletes of the Year. Swierbut was a running standout all season long, and Brestovansky stood out not only on the golf course, but also at the rink as a member of the Nighthawk hockey team.

Kathy Davey, who founded the Newtown High Unified Sports program in 2013, stepped down following another memorable and rewarding school year for special needs athletes.

June marked the return of the Tennis Open, an event that has been on and off throughout the years but is back to stay, says Ehab Farah, who sparked some life back into the Newtown Tennis Association and ran the tourney and ran the Open along with Tournament Director Brett Teolis.

The Rooster Run took place, and Halmose made it three-for-three, a hat-trick of 5K race success if you will, by leading the pack across the finish line of the June 21 event. Phil Tisi won the 10K.

In the most challenging race around town, the Mad Dash, loaded with obstacles such as the mud pit, Daniel Butler won the Elite Course race, and Kyle Albrecht was tops in the Open competition on June 29.

The Newtown Babe Ruth Softball U10 team captured the state championship in July.

Golfer Trevor Hislop won the Connecticut PGA Players Tour.

Field hockey players Katie Goyda and Kat Trammel helped their Competitive Edge travel team win gold at the Connecticut State Games.

Cover Two won the town’s Women’s Softball championship.

The Newtown Pride FC soccer team won the United States Adult Soccer Association National Amateur Championship.

Porco’s Karate Academy competed in the first World Tang Soo Do Association US Nationals Tournament.

A Football Fall

The Newtown Youth Football and Cheer program kicked off its 50th anniversary season as a group of dedicated coaches and other volunteers helped keep this well-oiled machine moving smoothly into another half-century of touchdowns and tackles.

This past fall, of course, included Newtown High’s run to the top. Along the way, the Nighthawks had to overcome four challenging nonconference opponents in the regular season and three more in the state playoffs. The 2019 season marked the first under a new system designed to create more competitive balance in which teams play four contests against what is believed to be comparable competition from other conferences. Newtown got past three of those foes — Fairfield Prep, West Haven, and Shelton — in hard-fought battles, and toppled Danbury in the other. NHS then crushed the competition in the state playoff quarterfinals and semis before nipping Darien on quarterback Jack Street’s last-second touchdown pass to Riley Ward.

The other football (fútbol) — girls’ soccer to be exact — had an memorable fall as well. The Nighthawks went into the tourney as the fifth seed and came out on top for the second year in a row. It took a double-overtime sister combination — Skylar Howard assisting Sydney Howard — to lift the Nighthawks to a 2-1 win over Notre Dame-Fairfield, on a cold November 6 night at neutral site Joel Barlow High in Redding.

Girls’ cross country got in on the championship success, as the Nighthawks ran past the opposing schools at the October 25 SWC meet at Bethel High. The Newtown boys were second.

The NHS field hockey team, led by NHS record-setting scorer Goyda (who broke her own marks with 30 goals and 25 assists), outscored teams 96-16 through the regular and postseason, going unbeaten in the regular slate while dominating the competition in almost every game.

Petersen earned recognition as the Fairfield County Sports Commission Person of the Year. Petersen was a standout on the basketball courts and took his baseball-playing prowess to the University of Connecticut.

Halmose continued his winning ways with a victory in the Second Company Governor’s Horse Guard’s Iron Horse 5K.

Zach Schwartz and Rachel Sowinski were the overall and female winners in the C.H. Booth Library’s Tenth Anniversary Turkey Trot. This year, the course featured a new, flatter route.

Sarah Mawdsley, a former running standout at NHS, led the Roger Williams team to the Commonwealth Coast Conference championship with the school’s second-fastest 6K time of 12:25.

David Lawrence, an NHS alum now swimming at Western Connecticut State University, earned conference Swimmer of the Week accolades with a record-setting time in the 100-yard individual medley race.

Newtown High Public Address Announcer Jason “J” Edwards announced his 1,500th game when the Nighthawk football team won the state playoff opener, 35-0 over Norwich Free Academy on December 4.

Newtown’s D12 cheerleaders captured local and state competitions.

The 2019-20 winter is also the Newtown Youth Basketball Association's 50th anniversary season.

It was a memorable year chock full of achievements and exciting competitions highlighted by championship and record-breaking success stories. What is in store for 2020? Follow all of the action in The Bee and find out. See you at the games.