Injury-Plagued Amity Track Team Hurdles Past First Competitors

Good news and bad news have marked the early season for the Amity boys track team. The good news is the Spartans opened their season with a pair of easy victories over Southern Connecticut Conference rivals, Lyman Hall (114-36)  and Guilford (136.5-13.5.) Those two victories extend the Spartans’ consecutive meet winning streak to 69 in a row. The bad news is several key members of Coach Thom Jacobs’ team are currently hobbled by an assortment of injuries.

In their SCC Housatonic Division win over Lyman Hall, the Spartans won first place in every event except the 200 yard dash and the 4x400 relay. David Karabinos led the winners with victories in the 110 high hurdles (16.2 seconds), the high jump (5-feet 10-inches) and the triple jump (43-8 ½). Taylor Tambis claimed both the javelin (152-0) and the discus (138-4). Other Spartan winners were: Cory Ricks (100—11.6), Adam Watts (long jump—18-6), Clark Shurtleff (1600—4:38), Hunter Ricks (400—54.0), Charlie Dunn (shot put—45-2½). Sam Spencer (800—2:09), Aaron O’Neill (300 intermediate hurdles—45.1) Dunleavy (3200—10:22), and Ray Vanacore (pole vault—10-0).

Amity also won the 4x100 and 4x800 relays. Zezhong He, Cory Ricks, Hunter Ricks, and Nick Litwin posted a 45.6 in the 4x100 relay. Deah Bhatt, Spencer, Jesse DiPietro, and Shurtleff won the 4x800 relay in 8:40.8.

The romp past Guilford saw many of the same Spartans win the individual events once again. Karabinos recorded victories in the 110 high hurdles (16.49), long jump (21-6), and triple jump (43-8). Tambis again doubled up in the javelin (154-0) and the discus (138-0). Cory Ricks added another blue ribbon in the 100 (11.57). Spencer’s 4:48.44 gave him another first place in the 1600. O’Neill repeated in the 300 intermediate hurdles (45.54). He’s 24.94 was tops in the 200. Dave Friedman won the 400 with a time of 57.77. Watkins posted another victory in the high jump as he cleared the bar at 6-0. It was the same story with Vanacore’s 10-0 in the pole vault and Dunne’s 46-0 in the shot put.

Alex Neumann, Dean Bhatt, Jessie DiPietro, and Shurtleff combined for a first place 8:25 in the 4x800 relay. Amity also won the 4x100 relay as James Bonvincini, Shae Belenski, Spencer, and O’Neill checked out at 3:49.78. He, Litwin, Cory Ricks and Kyle Kalanta added a winning 45.24 in the 4x100 relay.

Guilford’s only wins came in the 800 and the 3200.     

According to Jacobs, “I don’t mean to demean Lyman Hall or Guilford, but neither of those teams are at our ability level. They are both well-coached but very thin in numbers. Guilford is always strong in cross country so they always have quality track distance runners, but they usually struggle in the other events. This year, they are really trying to put together a full team. Lyman Hall used to be strong in track but right now, they are in a rebuilding mode.”

Turning to his team’s list of injuries, Jacobs added, “Right now, we are injury riddled. When we are healthy, we have a very good team. We’re deep and talented—perhaps the best team we’ve ever had at Amity, but we have several key guys out with an assortment of injuries. That does not bode well for the future. If we don’t get healthy, we won’t be able to compete at the level we want to compete.”

Currently hobbled by injuries are: Jesse Sanchez (a potential SCC champion hurdler)--sidelined with a pulled hamstring; Hunter Ricks (one of the top quarter-milers in the SCC) —pulled quadricep; Grant Watkins (a potential SCC champion high jumper) tendonitis in a leg; Jack Dunleavy (a very strong distance runner) a shin problem; and Taylor Tambis (Amity’s top thrower) —bruised arch.

“We’ve been blessed the last five years. We’ve won four SCC Championships and were runner-up the other year. Over the years, our guys have worked hard and are battle-tested in big meets. Our current injuries are a result of over-use.  The guys on our team are tough and will have to work through the pain,” Jacobs added.