Boys' Track and Field Places Third in Championships

Amity Boys Track and Field Coach Thom Jacobs made no secret of his displeasure with his team’s performance at the recent Southern Connecticut Conference Championship Meet at Sheehan High in Wallingford .

He said, “We weren’t ourselves that day at the SCC’s. I don’t know why but the results made no sense. I knew all along that I had great kids on my team and they showed it in the Class LL Championship Meet earlier this week at Willow Brook Park (in New Britain ). We’re still running on half of our cylinders due to an assortment of injuries, but I’m really pleased to see how my guys went all out to compete.”

Jacobs’ Spartans placed third with 63.5 points. Manchester High won the LL title with 75 points, 1 point ahead of the overwhelming pre-meet favorite, Danbury High.

According to Jacobs, “ Danbury was expected to win by 30 points, but didn’t have a good meet. Their coach is still shaking his head. Manchester was expected to be 1 of 4 teams to battle for second place--- Norwich Free Academy , Staples, Amity, and Manchester . They had a special day and scored about 15 points more than I expected while Danbury scored about 15 points less than I expected. It was a great day for Manchester . They have an awesome coach and his kids really responded.”

Without any question, sophomore Dave Karabinos was the star of the day for the Spartans.  He posted a second place 44-feet 8 ¾ in the triple jump, a third places 21-10 in the long jump, and a fourth place 6-0 in the high jump. He accumulated 19 of Amity’s 63.5 points.

“There isn’t much Dave cannot do. He’s a very versatile athlete.  He is also an excellent hurdler, but you are only allowed to compete in 3 events at the state meets. We decided to let him choose which 3 events he wanted to enter.  With all the injuries we’ve had this spring, Dave has been our anchor and our team point leader. He’s a great athlete and still only a sophomore. People will be speaking about him in hushed tones for the next 2 years,” Jacobs added.

Taylor Tambis added a second place 147-6 in the discus. Clark Shurtleff (1600 meter run —4 minutes, 24.01 seconds), Jesse Sanchez (110 high hurdles—15.86), Charles Dunn (shot put—47-7 ½), and the 4x100 relay (Zezhong He, Nick Litwin, Kyle Kalanta, and Cory Ricks—43.73) all  were third place finishers.

Other Amity athletes placing among the top 6 were: Jack Dunleavy (6th n the 3200—9:50.96, Sanchez (6th n the 300 intermediate hurdles—42.97), and the 4x800 relay (Shea Belenski, Dean Bhatt, Jesse DiPietro, and Alex Neumann—8:08.33).

Jacobs said, “We had top 6 finishers in 11 events, but didn’t win 1st place in any events. Because we are so deep, we don’t lose dual meets, but we need guys to step up and win events if we want to win state meets. As the head coach, I have to find a way for us to do that.”

The CIAC State Open (which Jacobs labeled “a crap shoot” for 1st place) will be held Monday at Willow Brook Park, the New England Championship Meet will take place on Saturday at South Burlington HS ( Vermont ). The annual CIAC Decathlon (with Karabinos representing Amity) is set for June 13-14 at Willow Brook Park and the annual Steeple Chase will be held on June 14 at Willow Brook Park.