Month: June 2011

2011 New England Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships

The Prior family took home four medals (a gold and three bronze) from the 2011 New England Junior Olympic Track Championships held at Fitchburg State University on 6/18 (photos, results, meet info). This is only the 2nd time they have competed together in same meet.

Kayla started the day by jumping to 3rd in both the long and triple jumps to pick up two bronze medals and two berths to the region 1 meet. This was the final track meet that Kayla’s infected tonsils will be coming along for the ride.

In the afternoon, Jared advanced to the 100m finals, winning his trials heat in the 2nd fastest time overall (12.76 FAT) and then matched it in the final (12.77 FAT) for 3rd place. Kayla was on the infield before the race teaching him how to start from a crouch position.

After baking on the sunny infield for a couple of hours waiting for the 100m trials and finals and completing those two races, Jared headed to the Long Jump pit to face a field of 16 jumpers. He struggling with his steps a bit in warm ups, but lead off with a safe 5.19m (17’1/4″) jump with plenty of room behind the board. After two strong looking fouls, he finished off with a 5.02m (16’5 1/2″) jump. His opening jump outdistanced the field by over 7 inches to earn him the title of 2011 New England Junior Olympic Long Jump Champion (footnote: Maine and Connecticut have separate meets but he out distanced those winners as well) in the 1997-1998 Youth division. This mark would have also won the Massachusetts Middle School Championship last week (only Brown middle school, based on winning the all-city meet, represented Newton at that meet).

The top six places from this meet advance to the “Northeast” Region 1 championship , (entries) at RPI in Troy, New York on July 9th (Jared) and 10th (Kayla). Kayla and Jared advance in all their 4 events. Region 1 combines NY, CT, RI, MA, VT, ME, NH, and NY. The top 5 from each of the 16 regions advance to the National Championship at Wichata State University in Wichita, Kansas.

Jared’s long jump PR from his middle school season (17’5″, 5.31m) is close enough to the 5.33m guideline to qualify him for the Youth Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Myrtle Beach (info, entries) so Dad and Jared will do an overnight trip down there to compete on July 3rd. His PR would place 10th last year as would Kayla’s LJ PR (but she will be recuperating that week).

Newton Lions wrap up spring season with 1-2 overtime loss to Lexington in MITOC playoffs

Jared’s town Bay Area Youth soccer (BAYS) travel team was Newton 2nd team for 7th-8th graders (team photos, Jared photo sequences). They finished the regular season with a 8-0-2 record to win their six team division last week. This enabled them to compete with other eight other division 2 winners for the chance to represent the 180 or so boston area youth soccer teams in the state-wide Massachusetts Tournament of Champions.

They faced Lexington’s #1 team last night in the first round of the playoffs. The Lexington team was from a higher division and also had a 8-0-2 record. After going down 0-1 they came back with a 1-1 equalizer and the game finished regulation in a 1-1 tie. That put the game into two 10 minute overtime periods. They team played well but Lexington had an explosive striker who scored the go ahead goal for them. This was the most exciting soccer game I’ve seen since Jared started playing. Jared played the entire 90 minutes as a midfielder despite the team having 5 subs.

It was a disappointing loss, but the team played very well against an excellent opponent. The fall season (with Jared on injured reserve) saw his team with only a 2-6-2 record, so they have come a long way. Between basketball and soccer, Jared was blessed to play with two undefeated regular season Newton teams this year.

Below is photo number 47,370 taken in year since Dad got his camera for Father’s day one year ago. An average of 130/day! Not a bad photo considering it was taken right after the loss….

Jared triple runner-up at Newton All-City Championships

Jared concluded his first middle school track season taking home three 2nd place ribbons for the long jump (16’8″), 100m (12.2 PR), and 4x100m relay (52.58?) in the Newton All-City meet (photos). The meet brought together the 6th-8th graders from the four middle schools in the city. In the 4x100m Jared achored them team from being just slightly ahead of 4th into a strong 2nd.

preparing for 1st long jump:

Getting some pointers:

Taking off on 16’8″ jump (a bit left on the board):

100m start:

Getting hand-off for 4x100m relay anchor leg: