Category: Kayla Track

Kayla came into the final meet of her indoor season — Saturday’s Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Division III Championships — seeded a distant 18th in the long jump.

The ECAC Division III consists of 186 member schools, so that’s a pretty good accomplishment in itself. But then as Kayla’s coach said to us yesterday, there is a reason why they actually run track meets rather than just hand out medals based on the seed performances.

Kayla walked out of the New Balance Armory with the bronze medal around her neck and Ithaca College walked out with the 2013 ECAC DIII Team title (results, Ithaca press release, family photos, team photos, jump sequences)

Kayla opened her long jump competition with a indoor PR-matching 17’5.25″ jump and then followed it with a strong 17’4.25″ jump that would prove important. She finished 2nd in the 1st flight of 11 jumpers, but with 13 better jumpers remaining to jump in the 2nd flight to fill out the 9-woman final, she figured her day was likely over and headed to the stands to visit with the family.

The 2nd flight under-performed vs. their PRs, and after they were finished jumping, Kayla had made the finals (3 more jumps) and stood in a 3-way tie for 4th place, with her strong 2nd jump giving her the lead among them on the tie-breaker.

I have never seen such a tight field. Look at the performances of the top 9 jumpers going into the final 3 jumps:

5.46 5.39 5.32 5.31 5.31 5.31 5.30 5.30 5.30

Only 3/4″ separated places 3-9, and ALL the jumpers in the final had a better personal best than Kayla, so she could easily fall back out of the points to 9th if others improved and she didn’t.

In 4th round one of the three 5.30 jumpers popped off a 5.51 for the lead, and pushed Kayla back to 5th. Kayla responded on her 5th jump with an indoor/outdoor PR 5.39m (17′ 8.25″) that moved her up past the 4th place 5.32 to 3rd place tie, with her 2nd jump again winning the tie breaker. That jump is over a foot better than her 16’8″ high school indoor PR.

Kayla’s 6 points made her Ithaca’s 4th highest point contributor toward the team title, only exceeded by NCAA-championship-bound seniors Jenn Randall, Amanda Rissmeyer, and Emilia Scheemaker. Kayla’s performance ranks her 43rd in the NCAA division III qualifying list, with the top 16 (18’1.75″) qualifying.

Kayla also competed in the triple jump on Friday, delivering her 2nd best career performance with a 35′ jump for 14th place.

VIDEO OF KAYLA’S 17’8.25″ PR jump for 3rd:

Kayla jumped to a 4th place in the long jump on Day 1 of the 2013 New York State Track Conference Championships Friday night in Ithaca (press release, results, meet program, meet website). Kayla jumped 5.25m (17′ 2.75″), her 2nd best indoor performance, improving on her 5th place seed to add 5 points to Ithaca’s 74 point 1st day total. Ithaca led the 12 school meet followed by St. Lawrence (57 points) and Rochester (28 points) going into Day 2. Kayla placed 12th in the triple jump with a jump of 10.25m (33’7.5″), well off her 36′ PR, but still her 3rd best career performance. Ithaca won the meet by 52 points (2nd day press release).

FILE PHOTO FROM LAST WEEK’s NYC MEET

Kayla travelled to New York City for a Friday meet at the Armory, the day before the Milrose Games (photo galleries, results, news story).

Kayla hit a new indoor personal best of 17′ 5″ (5.31m) to place 6th in the competition. She now ranks 20th in the ECAC in both the long jump and the triple jump and #1 on the Ithaca College long jump depth chart.

Several Olympians were onsite warming up for the Milrose Games, including 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist Jenn Suhr.

Nanny and Papa ventured down from Connecticut for the “local” meet.

Kayla returned to hurdling with a 9.97 60m hurdles PR at the Ithaca Invitational for 11th (results, 200m video). By standardized conversions, that works out to a 9.27 55m hurdles, which improves on her 9.32 high school PR. She also ran a personal best 27.5 split on a 4x200m relay.
Her photo (below) was featured on the full back page of The Ithacan college newspaper. Her coach set copies of the paper to us and her high school coach. Click on image for larger view.

Photo from Ithacan (found on flicker)

Mom flew up to attend and took a video of the 4x200m. Kayla is the 2nd leg:

Kayla had foul trouble in long jump, but her last jump (shown below) was measured at a monster 5.75m (18′ 10.25″):

Kayla jumped to a huge personal best in the triple jump at the Empire 8 championship on Saturday, jumping 36’0.25″ to place 5th (results). Her previous PR was 34’6″ and her high school PR was 33’5.5″.

The mark qualifiers her in a 2nd event at the ECAC championships and moves her to 2nd on the Ithaca College depth chart in the triple jump. She also ran a personal best 8.38 in the 55 meter dash. The triple jump is at 4pm on Friday March 1st while the long jump is at 1:30pm on Saturday March 2nd (schedule).

Photo of Kayla triple jumping in Cornell Relays in December:

Kayla jumped to an indoor personal best 17′ 2 1/4″ to place 6th at the Cornell Indoor Challenge in Ithaca on Saturday (Ithaca College News Article, results). You wouldn’t guess it from the Ithaca news release, but Kayla was one of only 3 Ithaca athletes to score points in the meet (scored 6 places deep).

The jump qualifies her for the ECAC Division III Championships to be held in the Armory in New York City on Saturday March 2nd at 1:30pm. The Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference represents 186 division III schools and is the highest level championship short of the NCAA championships (which requires an 18’4″ jump for provisional qualification).

Her jumping today also moved her to the top of the Ithaca College long jump depth chart and ranks her #2 in the Empire 8 league and 13th of the 19 athletes qualified for the ECAC (#2 freshman). #19 is Michele Kaufmann, Kayla’s captain as a freshman at North. If KP were still in high school, she would rank #1 in the state at the moment.

newtonsportsphotography.com file photos: