Month: June 2012

Jared jumps to 6th at USATF Youth Nationals

Jared and Dad used some Delta frequent flyer miles to fly down to the 103F heat of Arlington, Texas for the 2012 USATF Youth Nationals. Jared jumped 19’2″ on hist first attempt to place 6th in the 16-competitor field (results, jump sequences). He led the 8AM competition after the 1st round and was 3rd going into the 6th round. Only 1 jumper had a better 2nd-best jump than his 19′ 3/4″ 2nd jump.

He was the youngest competitor in the field of mainly of 16yo sophomores. The intermediate boys division consists of those born 1996-1997, so his October 1997 birthday put him on the younger end of the bracket.

The meet doesn’t draw as much depth as the junior olympic Nationals in late July, but Texas is a track hotbed, so the local talent made the meet competitive. The jumpers he beat included three with PRs of 20’8, 20’4, and 19’8″.

Jared improved over 3 feet from his 16′ jump at this meet 1 year ago, where he placed 11th against 13-14yos.

Jared also qualified for the triple jump by jumping 38’6″ in his first ever competition 10 days before. He jumped 36’3″ on Friday morning to place 8th in his 3rd ever competition (results, jump sequences).

We stayed North of the complex and had views of the Dallas Coyboys and Texas Rangers stadiums from our balcony.

Jared was the first athlete to arrive at the venue at 6:30am. His warm up gave him an edge:

Long jump competitors head to the pit:

The field:

Jared prepares for his 1st attempt:

Take off on his 1st 19’2″ jump:

Jared sails into morning sun on his last attempt:

Jared receives his 6th place “Metal”:

Jared attacks his last triple jump attempt:

We had to catch a plane so didn’t stay for the triple jump award ceremony.

Here is a video of his jump sequences:

Massachusetts State Middle School Championships

The 2nd annual Massachusetts Middle School Championships were held Saturday June 9th at the University of Massachusett Lowell, bringing together the top middle school track programs from across the state (results, Newton Sports Photography coverage, family photos). There was a two-event per athlete and 3 entry/team/event limits, so Jared did the Long Jump and the 4x100m relay letting his teammates run the 100m.

A field of 48 athletes completed in the long jump with Jared winning the event and breaking the meet record by over 2 feet with 19′ 2″ jump. Jared bested 2nd place by 5.5″ and 3rd by a foot (see jump sequences). This was Jared’s 3rd best outing (after the 20’4.25″ at all-city meet and a 19’6″ at a Waltham TC practice meet), yet it still ranks 31st nationally among 14,000 middle school jumpers.

Jared land a 19’2″ jump on his third attempt.

Here is a video sequence of Jared’s jumps. His best jumps were his 3rd (19’2″) and 5th (19’0″):

In the 4x100m, the first three runners split 13.74, 12.31, and 12.39. Jared brought home the baton in a blazing 10.82, for his 2nd state championship and meet record of the day (49.26), besting runner up Jonas Clarke MS of Lexington by 1.25 seconds. Usain Bolt anchors in 8.71, so he still has some work to do :-). The open 100m was won in 12.50, so without an entry limit Jared would likely have won that event as well (11.84c personal best).

Jared was one of only 3 athletes (and only boy) at the meet to win 2 events.

Youtube video of 4x100m:

Jared triple winner in Newton All-City Meet — Leaps to USA #3 20′ 4.25″

Jared won the long jump, 100m, and 4x100m relay at the Newton All-City Track Championship on Wednesday (photos). He was runner up in these events as a 7th grader.

The big highlight was upping his personal best by almost a foot with a 20′ 4.25″ leap that ranks 3rd in the USA for middle schoolers. He defeated 2nd place by well over 2 feet.


Take-off on his 20′ 4.25″ jump:

Jared’s coach congratulates him:

Landing his 3rd jump:

The Newton South pit is a bit recessed, which adds several inches to the jump, but for an apples-to-apples comparison, the Massachusetts large-school freshman/sophmore meet was held at South as well and in that competition of the 45 best underclassmen in the state, Jared would have placed 4th as an 8th grader.

Jared also won the 100m in a time of 11.8 and the 4x100m relay in 49.?.

Gampy was able to catch the first 2 events before we headed over to Kayla’s graduation ceremony.

Kayla anchors Newton North to State Open 4x100m Silver

Kayla concluded her high school track career on the eve of her graduation with a spectacular 4x100m anchor leg to bring Newton North home in 2nd place to powerhouse relay Brockton in the Mass State Open meet, defeating the top 23 teams in the state that advanced from the divisional championships (results, photos, milesplit coverage, Boston Globe, Newton Tab).

She got the baton trailing eventual winner Brockton and had a slight lead on a charging field of the six fastest teams in the stat and held them all off. The relay team’s 8 points clinched North’s third consecutive state open title.

From Milesplit article: “Runner-up was a theme for Newton at this meet, as they would get their 4th of those in the 4×100 (49.78), with Carla Forbes running a brilliant 3rd leg to get the stick to senior Kayla Prior, who wrapped it up beautifully. Brockton won the event they have dominated all year (48.94), giving Clerveaux another gold medal around her neck.”

The Newton Tab (North Girls Track Team Dances to third straight title) describes the meet postponement saga that almost had this meet conflicting with the Prom.

About 0.3 seconds after above photo was taken Kayla and I had a nice hug to celebrate at the finish line. I was so glad we had the chance to celebrate and say goodbye to 4 years of track together. I will miss it.

From tracktalk.net:


“rumor was the NN girls were skipping meet for Prom. .
No truth to this. Told by Coach Martin and Mo that all girls would have been present, and that a very elaborate bussing schedule was being put together by JT and some senior parents. I watched Kayla Prior finish the 4×100 and be greeted by her dad/ Newton Sports Photography’s own- something tells me she wasn’t going to miss the opportunity for that moment.

I’m more impressed with how they did given that the meet was the day AFTER the prom!”

The North girls ended up with the 8th fastest time in New England for the year. In the long jump, Kayla ended up as the 17th ranked long jumper in the state and 32nd in New England.

The runner-up Wachusett team of 4 girls, with 3 state open championships among them, seemed most excited that evening to meet their favorite blogger:

Newton North principal Jenn Price made the 1 hour drive out to Fitchburg to support the team, posing here with their third consecutive state open trophy: