Newtown High School's wrestling team put together a strong showing, its depth on display, with a tournament-best eight place winners — including an individual champ — on the way to a second-place finish in the South-West Conference championships at Pomperaug High on February 15.

Steven Vournazos won the 182 pound weight division championship, scoring a 3-1 decision in overtime to overcome Bunnell of Stratford's Nick Demanche.

New Milford won the competition with 162 points. Newtown finished with 146.50 points.

The Nighthawks went into the last round trailing New Milford by just three and a half points but had three finalists as opposed to the favored Green Wave's five and in need of help from some other schools to pull off the upset.

Although New Milford sealed the win, this was a showing by the Nighthawks that had their coach, Ron Chivinski feeling good.

"We pushed them much harder than anybody thought we would," said Chivinski, whose team was beaten 46-24 by the Green Wave in a dual meet on February 5.

"Today it was a team thing," said Chivinski, adding that several of his grapplers bumped up one, in some instances two weight divisions in an effort to not necessarily earn individual titles but have more wrestlers go deep in the tourney to rack up as many points as possible.

"I can't be more proud of how they came together and exhibited themselves today," the coach added.

Luca Manfredi earned third place in the 106 division; Greg Gargano was fourth at 113; Ben Plaue was runner-up to his former Newtown Youth Wrestling Association partner, Mike Carpenter of Pomperaug; Angel Colon earned fourth at 132; Ben Watson was third at 138; Fritz Maurath came in third at 152; and Steven Leuci was runner-up at 160.

Zach Reilly went deep into the tourney, falling to the eventual third-place wrestler in the 145 division. Reilly, a junior who hadn't wrestled for the past three years before a comeback, was inserted into the starting lineup just in time to earn his varsity letter. Ryan Callahan also made big contribution, advancing deep at 172, losing to the eventual third-place finisher as well.

Gargano, Leuci, and Maurath all moved up one weight class; Colon, a freshman, moved up two divisions; Aidan Almeter bumped up two divisions as well.

Manfredi won an 8-0 major decision in his third-place clinching bout. Gargano won in a 15-0 technical fall decision to advance to the consolation finals. James Tibolla earned one win with a pinfall decision at 120. Plaue earned wins via pin and a major decision on his way to the finals. Colon earned an overtime won to advance to the consolation finals. Watson pinned three opponents on his way to third place. Reilly's efforts included a major decision triumph. Maurath earned two pin fall wins and scored a 9-1 major decision victory in his third-place bout. Leuci had wins by pin, major decision, and regular decision on the way to the finals. Callahan had a trio of pin fall victories. Vournazos had major decision and regular decision victories on the path to the pinnacle bout. Acea Shaham competed at 195, Almeter competed at 220, and the Nighthawks did not have a representative at 285.

Newtown's wrestlers were aggressive, going for pins and piling up match points in efforts to earn extra points throughout the competition.

"The reason we did so well is we got after the bonus points," Chivinski said.