Jared wrapped up his outdoor Bay State Conference track career earning his first individual league title with a 1st-round League Record 22′ 9.5″ long jump along with two relay silvers (4×1 video, 4×4 video, photos, milesplit slideshow, tab article). In the 4x100m he split a personal best 9.98 for 100m anchor leg. He could stay ahead of Bolt for almost 100m if he just had a running start across the the start line :-).
He now hold the indoor and outdoor LJ records for the conference. In his 25 conference dual meets over the last four years he battled through injury to pile up 316.5 points and 56 1st-place performances helping the Tigers to a 24-1 record and 3 league titles.
He was in 3rd place after a respectable 21’8″ opener and a series that included two slight fouls. On his last jump he adjusted his mark to adapt to the varying tail wind and got right on the board. He also anchored the 4x100m to a win holding off Smith Charles, the 3rd fastest freshman in the country indoors (Smith won 100m in 10.90). This was an improvement of 9″ over his 22′ 3″ jump on Wednesday at Newton North and a foot over his 22′ “flat-pit” PR from indoors. This pit was perfectly flat but he did have a bit of an aiding tailwind.
The mark qualifies him for a Championship level entry to the New Balance Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro on June 18th.
Excerpts from Globe and Herald below.
Boston Globe:
Newton North senior Jared Prior knows all too well how to deal with adversity.
Coming off injury-plagued years the past two outdoor seasons, the Bowdoin College-bound Prior proved Saturday during the 41st annual boys’ MSTCA Invitational at BC High why he is still one of the top track athletes in the state.
Prior established a state outdoor season best in the long jump with his mark of 23 feet, ¾ inch, which topped second place by more than a foot.
“I came into this event feeling more in control of my body and my long jump approach than I have since my freshman year,†Prior said. “That last jump was really meaningful for me just to know what I am capable of, or at least finally see that I’m not just making it up when I think I can produce far jumps.â€
During the indoor season, Prior said he had worked a lot on his rehabilitation and flexibility to build his strength.
Prior was also the anchor for the 4 x 100-meter relay team (43.51 seconds), which edged Milton (43.53), and was awarded one of the outstanding athlete of the meet plaques.
Boston Herald:
Prior rounded out the elite trio of Tigers with a Best in Field honor after he placed first in the long jump with a leap of 23 feet and three-quarters of an inch and then ran the final leg of the 4×100-meter relay to give the Tigers a narrow win over Milton.
“I was very surprised with 23 feet, but also very happy,†Prior said. “I’ve been wanting this for four years. So, of course, to get an award, to get the win and to get the mark, it all means a lot to me.â€
Article ran at top of Globe online high school section (originally with headline “Newton Jorth”)
Elon defended their CAA Outdoor Track Championship Saturday May 7th at Elon (news). Kayla concluded her track and field career with a season’s best 33′ 9″ triple jump. Photo galleries: highlights and of Kayla.
— Boston Globe Schools (@GlobeSchools) April 3, 2016
Jared finished off the New England portion of his indoor high school track career yesterday with an 8th place finish in the New England Championship, moving up 3 slots from his 11th place seed.  He was in a 3-way tie for 6th with his 2nd round 21′ 3.5″ jump,  but moved to 8th on 2nd jump tie-breakers (photos, results, Boston Globe article, Newton Tab article). He finished ahead of all but the one jumper from western Massachusetts who had previously beaten him in the elite meet and state open.    The leading jumpers were a foot off their PRs (lumpy non-deep pit?)
With him being the only Mass jumper advancing to New Balance Nationals, his 22′ 0″ jump from the Braintree dual meet will stand as the state leading jump of the 2016 season.
On the basis of these performances and primarily on his 2nd place in state open (1st in eastern mass), the athletic department notified Jared this morning that the Boston Globe has named him along with 9 other Eastern Massachusetts athletes to the Boston Globe 2016 Indoor Track All-Scholastic Team. This is a most broadly visible honor that can be achieved in Massachusetts high school sports, with his photo/bio to be featured in the sports section of the Sunday Globe on April 3rd.
Proud that he had the courage to put the honor at risk by competing in New England’s yesterday, as losing to any eastern mass athlete there would have put the selection at risk. Sitting out would have locked it based on more important state open result.    Here are links to the 2014 and 2015 teams and to the home page for the teams.  Yeah Jared!
Jared capped off his Massachusetts state high school indoor track career today with a 2nd place 21′ 5.5″ long jump in the State Open Championships (performance list, milesplit preview, results, photos, articles from milsplit1, milesplit2, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Newton Tab, Newtonite, Daily Hampshire Gazette, . It was his 2nd best jump of the season and 3rd best of his indoor career. He also posted indoor 200m (video) and 400m (video) relay split personal bests of 22.34 and 51.45 respectively, with the North 4x200m relay taking home 4th place. The 4x400m relay was hampered by a fall on the 1st leg.
His 22’0″ personal best jump earlier this season broke the Bay State Conference record and is the #1 mark in Massachusetts (out of 836 competitors) as is the Newton 4x400m team’s 3:26.09 from last week’s D1 Championship win (video).Â
Over the past two years he helped lead Newton North to its 17th and 18th consecutive undefeated seasons as a co-captain contributing a league-leading 121 dual meet points.
Up next is the New England Championship long jump on Sunday the 28th and then the emerging-elite long jump competition at New Balance Nationals on Friday March 11th in New York City.
Newton North earned 2nd place honors at the 2016 MIAA Division 1 Indoor Track Championships (results, photos, Newton Tab, Boston Globe, ).   Although the meet ran for over 4 hours,  Jared events came in the last 46 minutes.  At 1:06pm Jared took his first long jump, earning a mark that would advance him to finals and state open, and then ran to the 4x200m start line, splitting a PR 22.42 to help North to a 2nd for 8 points (video).
He returned to long jump pit to post a 20′ 10″ jump that would be good for 4th place and 6 points. Â He headed to gym to sign in for 4x400m. Â At 1:50 he returned to the track to take the 1st jump of the long jump finals and then sprinted to starting line where the gun fired for the 4x400m 90 seconds later. Â The North team raced Andover to a photo-finish MA#1 win in 3:26.09 (video) besting 210 other schools in state this season, for another 10 points.
In all Jared contributed to 22 of Newton North’s 44 points (team scores).
Great to have Luca and family in the stands along with Nanny and Papa!
Above 2 photos courtesy of fellow photographer John Keklak — I was filming.
Newton North won the Bay State Conference Championship meet, with Jared taking 2nd in long jump(video),  5th in 55m dash, and 2nd in 4x200m relay (video).   His 5th in 55m was achieved despite a hurdle crew member inexplicably moving a hurdle into his lane during the final.  Newton scored 104 points with Jared contributing to 20 (results, photos).
The MSTCA Elite Meet acts as a preview of the state open competition (results, photos,Boston Globe article). Â Â Jared took 3rd in the long jump, Â 4th in the 4x200m (video), and 2nd in the 4x400m (video).
