Newtown High School's girls' and boys' indoor track and field teams both have new head coaches this season. And both are former Newtown High standouts.

Becky Osborne, who set multiple records and still holds the shot-put mark from her Newtown competition days in the late 1990s, takes over for the boys' squad. Osborne also coached the boys' swim team this past fall.

Kevin Hoyt, who is a regular winner/top finisher at road races - and who has completed four marathons - is the interim coach of the girls' squad. Hoyt has been an assistant in the program for the past couple of years.

"I'm very excited. I started my track career here," Osborne said. "To be able to give back to the school where I started is an amazing thing."

Hoyt added that he enjoys sharing his knowledge of running with Newtown High and the sport in general.

"I'm very excited to be back coaching with both teams," said Hoyt, who also assisted with the cross country squads in the fall.

Both coaches will overlap in helping out the other squad, with Osborne's expertise in throwing and sprinting events, and Hoyt's most experience in distance running. Additionally, assistant coaches will work with competitors from the girls' and boys' lineups. "We're all kind of everybody's coaches," Osborne notes.

Osborne said one of her objectives is to help a Nighthawk break her record. "I would love it," she said.

Both squads came in fourth in last year's indoor SWC championships, and placed second in the spring outdoor conference finals.

"Trying to meet or beat that would be amazing," Osborne said.

Tough competition stands to come from perennial powerhouse Weston (for the girls and boys) as well as Pomperaug's teams and the New Milford boys, in particular, Hoyt anticipates.

Hoyt said the Nighthawks are striving to build off of the success they had both last year in track and field and this past fall in cross country.

The girls are led by captains Lauren Russo (pole vault), Erin Tressler (distance runner), Cam Cicarelli (middle-distance), and Makenna Cerney (hurdles).

"We have a lot of really strong underclassmen that have been working really hard," said Tressler, adding that the experience of upperclassmen should help give the Nighthawks a boost this winter.

"I know we can pull through with a great season," Tressler added.

Among the top girls' squad participants, in addition to the captains, are distance runners Lu Hage, Madison Findley, Tayor Pare, and Camille Johnson; hurdler Lauren King; and sprinters Grace Pettinelli, Carly Swierbut, Grace Corcoran, and Emma Curtis; and sprinter/long-jumper Audrey Benson.

The boys are captained by Cormac Roe (55 meter dash and 4x200 relay), Jack Godfrey (shot-put), Dylan Lew (pole vault, 4x200, and 300), Kevin Arther (300, 4x200, and 4x400), as well as Jack Lavelle (sprinter) who begins the season sidelined with an injury and is hopeful for a return later in the campaign. Godfrey is a defending conference champion and state runner-up shot-put thrower.

Additional squad members are jumper/sprinter Adam Manes; jumpers Connery Mayer and Isaac Silverman; hurdler Cameron Mitchell; distance/mid-distance runners Brenden Reeds, Riley Risking, Joel Duval, Christian Lestik, Jordan Klein, Dylan Bartlett, Nick Jacobs, and Jermaine Anyoha; pole vaulter Aiden Jasinski; and hurdler Brett Deri.

"If we work hard we're going to see some really good results this year," Arther said.

The boys have had increasingly better results from one season to the next in recent campaigns.

"We're definitely in an upward trend," Lew said. "I don't think it's unrealistic to win the SWC in winter and spring."