Newtown High School’s girls’ swimming and diving team showed off its depth and progress by placing second in the South-West Conference championship. The diving competition at Weston High on October 24 and was capped off with the swimming events, at Masuk High in Monroe, on October 27.

The Nighthawks placed fourth in the SWC standings but overtook a Pomperaug of Southbury team which had defeated them, along with a Brookfield squad that tied the Hawks during the regular slate.

Newtown scored 355 points; third-place Pomperaug and fourth-place Brookfield had 336 and 321. Weston won easily with 593.

“Every swim we had in the pool today was a season’s best,” Newtown Coach Becky Osborne said. “No one was going to beat Weston.”

Given this, the second-place finish felt like a championship in some ways to the Nighthawks.

There was no particular strategy the Hawks used. They were merely trying to get state qualifiers in position to improve times, and those who had not yet qualified a chance to advance to the state meet while compiling as many points as possible.

“We were doing what we thought was best for our team and it paid off,” Osborne said.

In the conference championship, the top 18 finishers in individual events and top 11 in relay races are scored.

The Hawks didn’t have any first-place finishes and recorded just one runner-up outcome as the 200 yard freestyle relay team came in second.

The 200 free relay team, comprising Caroline Mahoney, Norah Kolb, Maddie Carter, and Payton Bradley finished in a time of 1:45.38.

Newtown’s 200 medley relay of Shayna Millard, Carter, Olivia Renkert, and Bradley was third in 1:54.76.

Carter came in third in the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 1:00.90, just off the school record time of 1:00.70, which has stood since 1997. Carter will work toward breaking the mark in the state meet.

Millard came in fifth in the 100 backstroke, clocking with a time of 1:01.87.

The 400 relay of Mahoney, Kolb, Renkert, and Millard was fourth in 3:53.06.

“It was everybody chipping away, getting all the points, that all just added up,” Osborne said.

Newtown had strong contributions in the diving competition. Kiera Sughrue earned fifth place, Hannah Weatherby ninth place, and Kylie Giroux 17th.

Check back on The Bee webpage and in the November 2 print edition for more results from the meet.