Trailing visiting New Milford 21-12 with six matches to go, Newtown High School’s wrestling team pinned its way into the win column on January 10. With a packed house, including great representation from its youth feeder program, creating an energetic atmosphere the Nighthawks had four consecutive pinfall victories to seal the team win. The Hawks went on to defeat their South-West Conference rivals 36-30.

In the 144 pound weight division, Antonio Arguello pinned Brennan Botelho to pull the Nighthawks to within 21-18. At 150, Jake Maddox of Newtown took just 29 seconds to pin Declan O’Brien to give Newtown a 24-21 lead.

The pins kept coming with Marc Maurath scoring a second-period victory over Ryder Langlois in the 157 weight class for a 30-21 Hawk advantage. Fisher Stites pinned Frank Scalia in the second period of their 165 bout for a 36-21 lead, sealing the team triumph.

“It was a little closer than I would have liked it to be. New Milford’s always a tough team,” Newtown Coach Chris Bray said. “Our guys just went out and did the job we talked about.”

That included some grapplers scoring extra points with those pinfall victories and others avoiding being pinned. There were a lot of contributors for the Nighthawks. If there was some combination of fewer Newtown pinfall victories (worth six points each, double that of a regular decision) and a New Milford pin or victory in a closely-contested match that went Newtown’s way then the team outcome could very well have been a different story.

In wrestling, there are often unsung heroes and losses that are quasi wins. As an example, NHS freshman Ty Jorgenson did his part to help take potential New Milford points off the board by working hard to avoid being pinned and dropping a 4-2 decision to Caden Reynolds.

Tommy Milligan won via pinfall in the 106 division; Kenna Gioffre scored a hard-fought 1-0 win over Alex Oberc at 120. Gioffre’s victory was a significant one for the Hawks given the outcome could have gone either way. Jon DaSilva earned a 12-5 win over Riccardi Fernandez in the 285 division. Charlie Dunn took Adam Oberc to overtime before falling 3-1 in a close one at 190.

Newtown had a busy weekend on the mats with three competitive events.

For the first time, the Nighthawks were invited to the Eastern States Classic in Loch Sheldrake, N.Y. This event includes 500-plus of the top wrestlers from New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Newtown sent eight of its most experienced wrestlers and the team placed 11th out of 171 teams.

Newtown also sent varsity wrestlers to Cumberland, R.I., to compete against 17 teams from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Thomas Morgan placed third, Grayson Renkert and Andrew Corey were both fifth, and Jorgenson placed sixth.

Newtown’s JV squad competed at Enfield with 13 wrestlers placing: Brayden Ayles, Spencer Jorgenson, Troy DaSilva, and Dante Ames all placed first; Chris Ivanoff, Nick Teixeira, Rafe D’Agostino, Ryan Yong, and Tristan Ortiz all took second; Andrew Gegelishvili, Caleb Birtwell, and Preston Green each placed third; and James Dyer was fourth.

This coming weekend, Newtown is competing in the Colter Abely Mid Season Classic in Middletown. The Hawks will compete with some of the top teams in the state including top-ranked Xavier of Middletown, East Hartford (No. 3), Simsbury (No. 7), and Trumbull (No. 9).

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.