Jared ran a personal best 11.2 in 100m (verified as 11.43FAT by video) for 2nd, jumped 20’9″ for 2nd, and won the 200m in 23.0 (23.18FAT by video) at Harvard this evening to qualify for these events for the Bay State Games on Saturday July 13th at Regis College in Weston (performance list). He is a top 3 seed in all three events.
Jared won the USATF New England Junior Olympic age 15-16 Long Jump competition at Fitchburg State with a 20′ 2″ jump (photos). Having the meet likely wrapped up after his 1st jump, he was aggressive in his subsequent jumps and got out to around the 22′ mark but fouled. 2nd place was 18’7″. He previous won this event two years ago in the 13-14yo division.
He also placed 2nd in the 400m in 52.14, coming on strong wit a reverse-split 25.8 final 200m, but lost by 0.03 (see video). He is in white in lane 4.
These performances qualify him to compete in the Northeast Region meet at Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island in New York. on Saturday July 6th (info packet), with the long jump going off at 11:30am and the 400m at 2:15pm. If he places top 5 at that meet, he advances to the National meet in Greensboro with long jump on Thursday July 25th at 1:30pm and 400m on Friday at 11am.
Jared earned perhaps the highest accolade in his track career thus far Friday, placing third in the 2013 New Balance Nationals Freshman Long Jump competition (results, photos, patch article).
He came in on paper tied as top seed, although the late entry of Grant Holloway from Virginia, the USA #1 track freshman in high jump(6’11”), 110m hurdles(14.45), and 300m hurdles (38.56), as well as the USA #3 400m (48.58), and (now) USA #9 in long jump (22’3″) made winning a long shot. Holloway is also indoor national frosh champ at 60m and 400m.
After having to abort his first jump mid-air due to officials yelling “stop” to exiting 100m runners nearly cutting him off, Jared rested just a moment and then opened with a 20’8″ jump. He held the meet record (for the new event 🙂 for 10 minutes until Holloway opened with a 22’0″ jump.
Jared kept Holloway on his toes, with Holloway’s 22′ jump being an inch outside Jared’s PR of 21’11” from the D1 state meet. Jared held 2nd until the final round when Tyson Spears from Roswell, Georgia jumped 21’1″. Jared countered with another 21’0″ jump on his final attempt.
Looking at Jared’s three previous National Championship competitions, he has improved 5 feet in last 3 years: 2011 USATF Youth Nationals — 16’0″ — 11th 2012 USATF Youth Nationals — 19’2″ — 6th
2013 New Balance Nationals — 21’0″ — 3rd
I extracted the New Balance clips and the audio and combined it with my videos of his 1st and 4th jump to make a highlight video. Use this link http://youtu.be/UeqfHviw0V8 if you want to share it.
Check it out:
There are also videos of his 2nd and 3rd attempt on runnerspace (clink on the links).
Karen made her running debut on Sunday, completing the Columbus 10K in 56:49, placing 15th in her age-group and 345th overall (results). She ran 9:10/mile pace and ran negative splits, with her 1st 5K in 28:55 and 2nd in 28:16. It looks like there was a fun-run involved for Brianna also!
“I ran my first race today! I felt good through it and finished in 56:49, which isn’t breaking any land speed records but I am totally happy with it. Now I just need to add 20 more miles to this and I will be ready for October. Gah!”
Mike competed in 2013 Massachusetts Summer Special Olympics at Harvard on Saturday and Sunday. Julie and her kids attended as well. The day started off with a convoy of police from across the state blaring their sirens. Mike first competed in the 25m backstroke, placing 2nd. On Sunday he competed in the 50m freestyle, placing 3rd after a strong comeback in final meters. Photos from the weekend are uploaded to a gallery and also added on end of video below. Let me know your favorites (CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO GALLERY). ‘
Video of police convoy, 25back, 50free, and awards along with slideshow:
My favorite 20 shots from the gallery are included below:
It also gave him an official and faster qualifier for the New Balance Freshman 400m on Friday, as they had flagged the relay split submitted (entries). The twilight meets have a range of high school, college, and post grad runners shooting for qualifying times.
Lisa and I were at Special Olympics all day. Jared decided to run meet at 4pm and we got over to Bentley just under the wire at 4:30pm for race-day entry. In other news, Jared’s two Massachusetts Middle School Championship records in long jump and 4x100m survived the 3rd annual middle school meet yesterday. I think the 4x100m has a shot at lasting as two event limits will often lead strong runners to run individual events instead. Jared took team approach with 4×1 team.
See New Balance Video from FloTrack below (Jared in Purple shirt in lane 4) with race commentators:
The Newton North 4x400m relay team came home 2nd in the state, running the 2nd fastest time in New England this year (3:22.48) out of 640 schools. Jared split a 51.17 (equivalent to 51.87 flat start), improving on his run from last week. This time would rank him as #4 freshman in New England (of 656). The relay team shocked the field by improving by over 5 seconds from last week, due to faster running and a substitution, moving up from their 7th seed to 2nd. It is the 2nd fastest time by North in available electronic records (school record 3:19).
Newton North scored 48.75 points (8 coming from relay) outdistancing Lincoln-Sudbury (28) and Newton South (27). Seniors scored 26 individual points and Juniors scored the remaining 13.75 individual points. Three of the four relay members return.
Jared had a devasting learning experience in long jump when he neglected to check in before the event, thinking he only had to check in for his scheduled 2nd flight, and was scratched out of the meet. The meet was held in Western Mass and had an unfamiliar set of officials.
In the end his fresh legs may have been a big help to North, as their were 7 teams that ended up finishing within a half a second of North, and North would have been pushed back a few places if he hadn’t improved over last week, and that might have been the margin in the meet if his senior teammates had not performed so well in their individual events.
His next big meet is New Balance Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, NC, where Jared will compete in the Freshman long jump and 400m on Friday June 14th.
Photos from other photographers of medalists. I was busy shooting girls 4×4 and didn’t hear annoucement (sound familiar :-)>
Jared’s previous best jump in a “level pit” was about 20’10” going into the meet. His personal best jumps of 21’10.5″ had come in the “deep” covered pits at Newton North and Newton South that add 4-8 inches to jumps. On his first jump he hit a new personal best 21’11” which netted him a surprise 3rd place. He will be seeded 7th going into next week’s state open.
The Newton South boys track team did just about all it could to do to get past Newton North at Monday’s Division 1 Eastern Mass. Championships as the Lions entered the final race of the day tied with the Tigers and won the head-to-head matchup in the 4×400 relay.
Only the Tigers had a bit of an ace up their sleeves in the form of the long jump – which had yet to be counted in the results as of the traditional meet finale relay – with North having three of the top eight finishes. Those points vaulted North past South in the team standings as Newton teams took home both first- and second-place trophies from the Andover High campus.
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Junior Nick Fofana was second in the high jump at 6 feet, 4 inches and sixth in the javelin at 163-2. Freshman Jared Prior was third in the long jump at 21-11, with senior A.J. Johnson sixth at 20-6½ and senior David Oluwadara eighth at 20-6.
“In a meet like this, you need more guys to contribute,” Blackburn said. “That was the case for us today. We got points in places like the long jump that turned out to be unexpected, and that turned out to be the difference in the meet.”
Jared also ran the first 400m of his career, leading off the Newton North 4x400m relay (video) in 52.2 for 5th and the 8th fastest time in the state (should put them in the fast heat in State Open). This marks the third time Jared has knocked off his father’s high school PR in his first attempt. Assuming they will accept it, this run also qualifies him for the freshman 400m at New Balance Outdoor Nationals on June 14th in Greensboro, NC. He was already planning on long jumping there. He is currently the 19th ranked freshman in the USA. He ranks #1 frosh in New England by over a foot and a half, and is 16th overall for all classes.
Between the two events, Jared contributed 10 of Newton’s 82 points (6 individual + 4 relay). He was one of only two freshman boys to score in the meet (one got 6th in 400m) and likely one of the only ones to advance to the state open from the 6 divisional meets.
Dad has a few 1000 photos to process, so stop back in a few days for updates, but I figured I’d get the news out in a timely fashion.
His biggest fan:
The boys team with their trophy:
Jared with the team trophy:
Jared with the grandparents who made the trek to Andover for the meet:
Jared placed 2nd in the 200m and 3rd in the long jump at the 2013 Bay State Conference Outdoor Track Championships (results, photos, jump sequences).
In the 200m he ran 24.00 into a headwind to place 2nd behind the fastest runner in the state (UConn-bound indoor 55m state open champion PJ Hayes).
In the long jump he jumped 20′ 0.75″ to place 3rd behind teammate and New England #1 triple jumper David Oluwadara and indoor league MVP Jason Motovu from Norwood.
Only one other freshman got a top 3 finish in any event in the 12-school league.
Bay-State All-Star voting remains to be completed, but Jared has set himself up well for consideration by performing well in this meet and ending the league season as the #1 ranked long jumper, #3 ranked 200m runner, anchor of Newton North’s 7-0 4x100m team, and (I think) 5th highest dual meet scorer in league.
