Month: May 2012

Newton North Sportsmanship Award

“This athlete has consistently exhibited the qualities that are the foundation of good sportsmanship,

which are respect for the abilities of others in relation to herself,

an appreciation for the opportunities presented to her,

and a graciousness in both failure and success.

Her understanding and appreciation of these principles have driven her to be

the best that she can and to get the most out of her abilities,

both as an athlete and as a person.

This year’s team sportsmanship award goes to Kayla Prior…”.

After varsity letters are handed out to letter winners, one award (the sportsmanship award) is presented to a member of each team. We are so proud and happy for Kayla for receiving this well-deserved honor.

At the end of the evening, Newton North Principal Jennifer Price presented Kayla with a senior award for accumulating nine varsity letters over her career. Kayla had set a goal for herself to achieve this milestone way back in the fall of her freshman year.

Click here for photo gallery and youtube video.

The season isn’t over — State Open Saturday Monday Tuesday!

Kayla named to 2012 Bay State Conference All-Star Team

The members of the 2012 Outdoor Track Bay State All-Star Team were announced this morning and the list included KP!! While this may be not surprise to folks reading sports.priorfamily, where she is an all-star every day, this is quite an individual honor to achieve in her final season. The team of 28 athletes selected from the twelve Bay State schools is voted on by all the league coaches and represents the top athletes across the sport’s 14 individual events.

Kayla earned the honor in a season where she consistently ranked as the #2 long jumper behind Carla Forbes and cemented it with a clutch 2nd place finish in the league championships. She also medaled in the elite Weston Twilight Invitational, the Coaches Invitational, and the D1 championships. For good measure she anchored the Newton North 4x100m relay to an undefeated league season with 5 league meet victories and hit state qualifying marks in the long jump, triple jump, 100m, 100m hurdles, and 4x100m relay. She earning 47 team points across the dual meet season and broke the school and state meet record in the 3 x triple jump relay. North had an unprecedented 7 athletes named to the team including Carla Forbes (LJ/TJ), Kayla Wong (hurdles), Ali Hurwitz (400 hurdles, TJ), Megan Bellerose (400m/800m), Lucia Grigoli (Disc, HJ), and Evie Heffernan (mile).

The honor will be announced in the Boston Globe next month when the Massachusetts all-scholastic team is named and at Newton North Athletic Awards night on Tuesday where Kayla will receive a special plaque for earning 9 varsity letters over the course of her high school career.


The full list of winners from the Boston Herald:

BAY STATE CONFERENCE Rhyana Freeman, Amanda Jew (Brookline); Ellen Masalsky (Dedham); Molly Dempsey (Milton); Liz Burns, Danielle Mitchell, Hanna Carson (Natick); Carla Forbes, Meghan Bellerose, Lucia Grigoli, Kayla Wong, Allie Hurwitz, Kayla Prior, Evie Heffernan (Newton North); Amy Duggan (Norwood); Gina Conti, Erin McCarthy, Maddy Shea (Walpole); Carly Daniel, Kara Ganley, Emily Ryan, Carlijn Wagenaar (Wellesley); Melissa Darling, Jen Kimball, Julie Tevenan.

Kayla Anchors Newton North 4x100m relay to 3rd fastest time in Massachusetts in D1 State Championships

Kayla sped home in a blazing 12.20 split to anchor the Newton North 4x100m relay team to 49.63 3rd place at the Eastern Massachusetts Division 1 Championships (results, milesplit coverage, photos) on Saturday May 27th. The team of Kayla Wong, Steph Brown, Carla Forbes, and Kayla improved their season’s best by 0.8 to post the third fastest time run in Massachusetts this year (out of 738 teams) and the 7th fastest time in New England (out of 1800 teams) to advance to the state open final. This is likely the 2nd fastest time run in Newton’s history. Kayla also placed 7th in the long jump to contribute 8 of Newton’s 95.5 points posted to win the team title.

Here is a youtube video of the race with Kayla running the 4th leg:

Gram and Gampy check out Kayla’s long jump approach:

Jared, JT, and Mo watch Kayla jump:

Jared ups long jump PR to 19’6″

Jared jumped 19’6″ this evening at the weekly Waltham Track Club track meet. He also had a 19’8″ foul. This ups his nominal National middle school ranking on athletic.net to 15th out of over 14,000 logged athletes and meets the 19’1″ entry guideline for the intermediate boys (born 1996-1997, age 15-16) National Youth Outdoor Championships in Arlington Texas in July. Kayla has already made the 16’10” mark for young woman as well.

In New England, this mark would rank him 14th of 693 high school freshman this season.

Kayla 2nd in long jump at South Shore Principals Meet

Kayla placed 2nd in the long jump at the South Shore Principals pre-States tune up meet in Norwell on Saturday (results, photos). Her mark was off her PR (15’4.75″) in the notoriously bad long jump facility, but was 2nd only to MA #5 Nikki Dempsey. She also ran a season’s best 13.39 in the trials of the 100m placing 5th in the finals and anchored a North rookie 4x100m team to 6th. The juniors were mostly left behind to prep for their prom.

4x100m Relay on youtube:

The highlight slideshow features background music by Kha0sTh3ory.com.

Jared runs personal best 11.6 in 100m vs. Watertown

Jared continued his undefeated middle school season winning the 100m, long jump and 4x100m against Watertown. He has previous won these events in meets against all the Newton middle schools (Bigelow, Oak Hill, Brown) as well in earlier meets on the Day grass track. His time of 11.6 in the 100m (11.84c) ranks 82 of 16,000 nationwide results posted on athletic.net. He also had his 2nd best long jump of his career jumping 17’11 3/4″ and anchored the 4x100m relay team to a 50.5(?) win.

Jared soares to personal best 18’6″ in long jump

While Kayla was busy taking home long jump silver and 4x100m gold at the Bay State Conference Championships, Jared was competing in an intersquad track meet back in Waltham with the Waltham Track club. As Kayla made her way into the finals, Lisa texted me the news that Jared has improved his personal best by 9″, hitting 18’6″ on the 1st attempt. This mark ranks him 69th in the nation among over 13,500 reported middle school results on athletic.net.

He also set a personal bests of 11.8 in the 100m dash and of 25.2 in the 200m dash.

File Photo:

Kayla runner-up in Bay State Outdoor Track Championships

On Wednesday afternoon Newton North traveled to Weymouth high school for the 2012 Bay State Conference Outdoor Track Championships (results,photos, Newton Tab article). Kayla competed in the long jump, 100m, and 4x100m.

In the long jump, Kayla fouled her first attempt, had a short jump for her 2nd, and then made a clutch 16’1″ jump to advance to the 8-person finals in 6th place. She then fired off a 16’7″ jump to move into 2nd place for good, only bested by National Champion Carla Forbes (jump sequence). She completed the Bay State league portion of her season ranked #2 of 88 league long jumpers, improving from her 6th place indoor ranking. She currently ranks 11th overall state-wide.

After completing the long jump, Kayla anchored the Newton North 4x100m team to victory in 50.61 to complete an undefeated season for that team in league matchups (youtube video). They currently rank 7th in the state. She also ran the 100m in 13.70 into a headwind for 2nd in her heat and 8th place overall. Her next meet is the South Shore Principals meet on Saturday and then on to the Division 1 State Championships next Sunday.

4x100m Video on youtube:

Kayla soars to 17’5 3/4″ personal best for 7th at State Coaches Invitational

Kayla hit a new personal best of 17′ 5 3/4″ in the long jump for 7th place at the prestigious Mass State Track Coaches Association Invitation in Somerville on Saturday (results, milesplit coverage, photos). This marked the 3rd meet that Kayla has broken the 17′ barrier. After a weekend of high level track competition, the result put her at 10th in the state wide rankings, with only two of the top 10 jumps of the year not coming from this competition. Carla Forbes soared to a meet record, personal best, USA#4 20’3″ to win the competition. Kayla also tripled jumped 33′ for 18th and anchored North to a seasons best 50.43 in the 4x100m for 4th behind top ranked Brockton, Somerville, and North Attleboro.

Meet Highlight Video: