Newtown High School's boys' swimming and diving team with its 92-88 win over visiting Brookfield on February 14, checked off something on it to-do list from the preseason.

Coach Adam Fielding set out to top one of the South-West Conference's three perennial standouts. Unbeaten Pomperaug of Southbury remains the team to beat in the conference championships. Newtown came close to defeating Weston, and got the job done against Brookfield.

"It gives us a little motivation going into postseason," said Fielding, noting that his team is striving to be among the top squads in the SWC championships, which unfold with the diving competition on March 1 and swimming events two days later.

"We want to compete for second. We want to be in the conversation for the top three," Fielding said.

Newtown is the third-best team in the SWC, but in a championship meet that includes all of the conference's schools, coaches have to figure out the best way to get points and it's not as simple as in a head to head, dual meet setting, Fielding notes.

On top of that, the Newtown coach is looking to get some of his team members who haven't yet qualified for the state championships to lock up their spots in various swimming events.

"We're looking forward to diving too. We have some phenomenal divers," said Fielding, referring to Kyle Gaynor and Ian Humber. "It's going to be a blast."

The Nighthawks capped off the regular season with a 97-67 win over visiting Joel Barlow of Redding, on February 21. Records fell in the Brookfield and Barlow meets. Against Brookfield, Tommy Horan set the NHS pool record in the 50 yard freestyle event, clocking in with a time of 22.25. Against Barlow, Dawson Stout broke the pool record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 53.94, and the 400 free relay team of Peter Fagerholm, Stout, Mason Suba, and Horan broke the pool record with a time of 3:25.32.

Against Barlow, Fagerholm won the 200 individual medley in a time of 2:04.98. Horan won the 50 free in 22.55. Humber and Gaynor were one-two in diving with scores of 215 and 214. Suba won the 100 free in 52.18. Fagerholm was first in the 500, making his final touch in 5:03.50. Horan took the top spot in the 100 back with a time of 57.22. Ian Peng won the 100 breaststroke race in 1:13.86.