Dave Karabinos wins CIAC Decathlon

Amity sophomore Dave Karabinos has become the second Spartan in four years to win the CIAC Decathlon. Rich Haigh won the title of “the most versatile high school boys athlete in the state” in 2007 with a school record 6118 points. Karabinos rang up 580 points, only 73 points more than second place Matt Quatrano of Watertown High, who recorded 57,233 points. It should be noted that in 2007, Haigh won the high jump and tied for first place in the 100 meter dash. Amazingly Karabino won the 2011 crown without being first in any of the 10 events. He placed second in the javelin, third in the long jump, fourth in the 100 and the shot put, sixth in the 110 high hurdles, seventh in the pole vault, eighth in the high jump, ninth in the discus, and eighteenth in the 400 and the meet’s final event, the grueling 1500.

According to Amity Coach Thom Jacobs, “Usually, a kid that’s competing at this high level, will win at least one event. Dave is a very strong, versatile athlete who is not weak in or hurt by any of the decathlon’s 10 events. As a `result, he doesn’t lose a lot of points in any of the events. There were 37 finalists, and Dave was in the upper half of finishers in each and every event. I know his competition was waiting for him to have a bad event, but it never happened because he doesn’t really have a bad event.”

Prior to the decathlon, many people expected it to be a showdown between Karabinos and Cheshire’s multi-talented Jake Scinto, but he chose to compete in both the triple jump and long jump (which he won at the recent State Open) in the National Scholastic Championship Meet, which was held in North Carolina, at the same time as the two-day decathlon was being held at Willow Brook Park in New Britain.

Jacobs noted that while Scinto excels in the jumps, he does not pole vault or run the hurdles and claimed that he also “struggles” in the javelin.

He added, “It would have been very interesting if Dave and Jake had gone head-to-head. I think the final results would have been very close. Even though Jake is a senior and Dave is only a sophomore, there’s no way that Jake would have walked away with the championship.”

Heading into the meet’s final event, the 1500, Karabinos knew that he had a 30 second lead and as long as he didn’t finish more than 21 seconds behind Quatrano, he would win the competition.

Jacobs added, “As the 1500 is always the final event, all the competitors are always exhausted before the event begins. The 1500 is deliberately the final event as it is designed to test the athletes’ mental fortitude. They don’t run the 1500, they survive it.”

Trying to evaluate Karabinos’ performance, the long-time Spartan track mentor noted that any high school boy scoring over 5500 points has, in his opinion, recorded a significant accomplishment.

He added, “For a high school sophomore to score in excess of 5800 points, is something of real significance. Dave is a highly talented athlete who trains very hard. Since he is only a sophomore, I know he wants to do big things on the track before he graduates in two years. The state record of 7100 plus points was set back in 1979. Quite honestly, it is something that Dave can realistically think about.”

Amity sophomore Alexa Eldracher finished fourth in the girls’ eight-event heptathlon with 3664 points. Ronea Saunders of Lyman Hall won the title of the state’s  ‘most versatile scholastic female athlete of 2011’ scoring 4097 points.