Newtown High School's wrestling team had a memorable week as Aaron Occhipinti was recognized, on January 10, for recently achieving his 100th career high school win, and the Nighthawks had a pair of first-place finishers among five top-four competitors in the Greater Hartford Open, on January 13.

On January 10, Newtown defeated visiting Notre Dame 54-19. Occhipinti was honored for his milestone win, which he achieved a week earlier when Newtown took on Joel Barlow of Redding and Occhipinti logged two victories - a forfeit over Barlow and a win over Immaculate of Danbury's lone wrestler, who competes along with Barlow.

"I was sitting in the stands with Aaron's mom right before the holidays when I thought of the question: How close is Aaron to 100 wins? Pam didn't know off-hand, so I asked her to research his win-loss record each year, including ninth grade at Danbury," Newtown Coach Ron Chivinski said of Occhipinti, who wrestled at Danbury High during his freshman year. "The answer was that it was imminent. Clearly, it was time to prepare to honor Aaron in achieving a very special and noteworthy accomplishment in the sport of wrestling. He's had a stellar high school career and our coaching staff is hopeful that he can end on a high note and earn a trip to New Englands this postseason."

So, at Newtown's next home match, Occhipinti stood with his mom Pam, and siblings, teammate Aidan, along with Anderson, and Ava, and was recognized by the Nighthawks and their fans.

Occhipinti was among the Nighthawks to win via pinfall against Notre Dame. Most of the wins for both sides came via forfeit, but the Nighthawks had four pins.

In the 132 pound weight division, Nik Accousti pinned Nick Lemley in 3:20. At 138, Occhipinti pinned Michael Agate in 0:58, at 145, Justin Bogdanoff pinned Mark Delima in 2:08, and at 170, Sebastian Vona pinned Anthony Gonez in 1:53.

In the Greater Hartford Open, Occhipinti and Joe Zeller earned first place in their weight divisions. Doug Carriero earned second, Nik Accousti third, and Sebastian Vona fourth. Newtown entered two grapplers into a pair of weight divisions and had a couple all-Newtown competitions. Results are as follows:

120: Benjamin Watson vs. Diajhawn Hudson (East Hartford) 7-0 regular decision. Watson vs. Elizabeth Traunbak (Granby) pin in 1:36. Watson vs. Darius Mangiafico (Southington) 8-3 decision. Watson vs. Elliot Hall (Manchester) loss via pin in 4:15.

126: Occhipinti vs. Dawson Welch (Southington) pin in 0:45. Occhipinti vs. Lowayne Harris (East Hartford) pin in 4:13. Occhipinti vs. Hunter Flemming (Granby) pin in 4:57.

132: Accousti vs. Ethan Colutta (Southington) pin in 0:30. Accousti vs. Jason Brault (Southington) loss in 7-4 decision. Accousti vs. Kyle Vigeant (Glastonbury) 6-2 decision. Accousti vs. Richard Lawton (Portland) 8-0 major decision.

138: Fritz Maurath vs. Caden Mazzotta (Portland) pin in 0:54. Maurath vs. Shamar Schand (Manchester) loss via pin in 0:53. Maurath vs. Rahyad Ali (Hall) pin in 3:47. Maurath vs. Harry Goodin (Glastonbury) loss in 2-1 decision.

145: Steven Leuci vs. Jacob Tipton (JV-East Hartford) pin in 0:23. Leuci vs. Hunter Adams (Suffield) loss via pin in 1:15. Leuci vs. Jameson Carnes (Hall) 13-1 major decision.

145: Bogdanoff vs. Malaki Bass (JV-East Hartford) pin in 0:28. Bogdanoff vs. Nick Violissi (Portland) loss in 12-0 major decision. 0-12. Bogdanoff vs. Steven Leuci 2:42 pin for Bogdanoff. Bogdanoff vs. Joshua Vitti (Southington) loss in 16-6 decision.

170: Vona vs. Tyler Perez (Granby) loss via pin in 0:56.  Vona vs. Carlos Contreras-Loor (Newtown) 4-3 regular decision for Vona. Vona vs. Luke D'Angelis (Southington) 8-6 decision.  Vona vs. Matthew Jacobsen (Southington) loss via pin in 2:49.

170: Carlos Contreras-Loor vs. Matthew Jacobsen (Southington) loss via pin in 0:48.

182: Carriero vs. Marco Sagnella (Southington) 5-3 decision. Carriero vs. Anthony Martinez (East Hartford) 3-1 decision. Carriero vs. Ben Kibby (Granby) loss via pin in 1:06.

195: CJ Cash vs. Morphy Kuffour (East Hartford) loss via pin in 0:29. Cash vs. Kyle Courtney (Granby) loss via pin in 0:53.

285: Zeller vs. Anthoneil Phillips (East Hartford) 4-1 regular decision. Zeller vs. Billy Affini (Manchester) 3-1 decision.