The Newtown High School wrestling team carried over its winning ways into the start of the New Year.

On January 2, host Newtown beat Bunnell of Stratford 60-13. Owen Blair, Grayson Renkert, Antonio Arguello, Jake Maddox, Marc Maurath, Andrew Corey, and Brayden Alyers all had pins. Newtown is 2-0 in South-West Conference duals and has an overall record of 5-1.

The Nighthawks took second place out of 25 teams at the Bristol Central Invitational Tournament on January 4. While the team score was a little behind the team champion, East Hartford, Newtown had the most individual champs (four) and place winners (nine) of all the teams.

First place went to Kenna Gioffre, Arguello, Jake Maddox, and Maurath; third place to Blair and Micah Houston; fifth to Shaun Daoust and Corey; and sixth to Andrew Gegelishvili.

Sophomore standout Arguello was voted Most Outstanding Wrestler with four pins to win the championship.

Senior captain Maurath earned his 150th in-season career win for Newtown High.

Also on January 4, Newtown’s JV team competed at the Bristol Eastern JV Tournament. Seamus Getzinger, Sam Lopata, and Bohdan Petryshyn won their respective weight class brackets.

On January 1, the New England rankings were released with Newtown being ranked as the No. 4 tournament team and No. 3 dual team out of 190+ squads in six states. In addition, six are ranked as follows: No. 2 at 150 pounds sophomore Arguello; No. 3 at 165 senior Maurath; No. 4 at 120 senior Gioffre; No. 4 at 157 sophomore Maddox; No. 12 at 106 freshman Blair; and No. 14 at 190 senior Charlie Dunn.