Newton North won its 110th consecutive indoor track dual meet tonight against Needham. A team has to capture 51 of the available 100 points and it was handicapped to be an even 50-50 match up by a league coach earlier this morning, and that without the knowledge that Jared was nursing a hamstring strain from his last dual meet in December against Weymouth.
Jared first cleared 5’3″ in the high jump and then went to long jump to open competition with a 19’10” jump. Needham followed with strong 19’1 and 19’5″ jumpers hitting personal bests. He returned to high jump and missed twice attempting a PR 5’5″. His teammate Ben had cleared 5’5″ on 1st attempt and the two Needham jumpers failed to clear it, but had him beat on tie-breaker. He cleared PR 5’5″ on his last attempt for 2nd to get North 3 points. Both he and Ben passed their remaining attempts to focus on other events.
He returned to long jump pit and increased mark to 20’3″ for the win and 5 points; passing his 3rd attempt.
Next he went to 55m dash and lead a 1-2 North finish in a PR-matching 6.76 for another 5 points.
North went into relays leading 50-50, needing a win in one of the 5 point relays to win the meet. North hoped to lock up the meet in 4x200m while saving strength for 4x400m in case of mishap. The 4×2 team narrowly lost leaving it to the 4×4 team to compete for the win. Jared had not trained for the 400m since December, yet split a 53.2 3rd leg in North’s 3:31.37 win (MA #3 of 430) for another 5 points. He got some help from his friend Lucas Holt from Natick who passed him mid way and kept him moving along.
Overall Jared contributed to 18 of North’s 55 points and helped sustain a 17+ year winning streak for his coach.
