Category: Kayla Track

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:

“This athlete has consistently exhibited the qualities that are the foundation of good sportsmanship,

which are respect for the abilities of others in relation to herself,

an appreciation for the opportunities presented to her,

and a graciousness in both failure and success.

Her understanding and appreciation of these principles have driven her to be

the best that she can and to get the most out of her abilities,

both as an athlete and as a person.

This year’s team sportsmanship award goes to Kayla Prior…”.

After varsity letters are handed out to letter winners, one award (the sportsmanship award) is presented to a member of each team. We are so proud and happy for Kayla for receiving this well-deserved honor.

At the end of the evening, Newton North Principal Jennifer Price presented Kayla with a senior award for accumulating nine varsity letters over her career. Kayla had set a goal for herself to achieve this milestone way back in the fall of her freshman year.

Click here for photo gallery and youtube video.

The season isn’t over — State Open Saturday Monday Tuesday!

The members of the 2012 Outdoor Track Bay State All-Star Team were announced this morning and the list included KP!! While this may be not surprise to folks reading sports.priorfamily, where she is an all-star every day, this is quite an individual honor to achieve in her final season. The team of 28 athletes selected from the twelve Bay State schools is voted on by all the league coaches and represents the top athletes across the sport’s 14 individual events.

Kayla earned the honor in a season where she consistently ranked as the #2 long jumper behind Carla Forbes and cemented it with a clutch 2nd place finish in the league championships. She also medaled in the elite Weston Twilight Invitational, the Coaches Invitational, and the D1 championships. For good measure she anchored the Newton North 4x100m relay to an undefeated league season with 5 league meet victories and hit state qualifying marks in the long jump, triple jump, 100m, 100m hurdles, and 4x100m relay. She earning 47 team points across the dual meet season and broke the school and state meet record in the 3 x triple jump relay. North had an unprecedented 7 athletes named to the team including Carla Forbes (LJ/TJ), Kayla Wong (hurdles), Ali Hurwitz (400 hurdles, TJ), Megan Bellerose (400m/800m), Lucia Grigoli (Disc, HJ), and Evie Heffernan (mile).

The honor will be announced in the Boston Globe next month when the Massachusetts all-scholastic team is named and at Newton North Athletic Awards night on Tuesday where Kayla will receive a special plaque for earning 9 varsity letters over the course of her high school career.

The full list of winners from the Boston Herald:

BAY STATE CONFERENCE Rhyana Freeman, Amanda Jew (Brookline); Ellen Masalsky (Dedham); Molly Dempsey (Milton); Liz Burns, Danielle Mitchell, Hanna Carson (Natick); Carla Forbes, Meghan Bellerose, Lucia Grigoli, Kayla Wong, Allie Hurwitz, Kayla Prior, Evie Heffernan (Newton North); Amy Duggan (Norwood); Gina Conti, Erin McCarthy, Maddy Shea (Walpole); Carly Daniel, Kara Ganley, Emily Ryan, Carlijn Wagenaar (Wellesley); Melissa Darling, Jen Kimball, Julie Tevenan.

Kayla placed 2nd in the long jump at the South Shore Principals pre-States tune up meet in Norwell on Saturday (results, photos). Her mark was off her PR (15’4.75″) in the notoriously bad long jump facility, but was 2nd only to MA #5 Nikki Dempsey. She also ran a season’s best 13.39 in the trials of the 100m placing 5th in the finals and anchored a North rookie 4x100m team to 6th. The juniors were mostly left behind to prep for their prom.

4x100m Relay on youtube:

The highlight slideshow features background music by Kha0sTh3ory.com.

Kayla hit a new personal best of 17′ 5 3/4″ in the long jump for 7th place at the prestigious Mass State Track Coaches Association Invitation in Somerville on Saturday (results, milesplit coverage, photos). This marked the 3rd meet that Kayla has broken the 17′ barrier. After a weekend of high level track competition, the result put her at 10th in the state wide rankings, with only two of the top 10 jumps of the year not coming from this competition. Carla Forbes soared to a meet record, personal best, USA#4 20’3″ to win the competition. Kayla also tripled jumped 33′ for 18th and anchored North to a seasons best 50.43 in the 4x100m for 4th behind top ranked Brockton, Somerville, and North Attleboro.

Meet Highlight Video:

Kayla concluded her high school dual meet career on the Newton North track with a personal best 17’4″ long jump to place 2nd behind Carla in a loaded competition against league rival Weymouth (results, photos, milesplit article) She defeated Weymouth’s Melissa Darling for the 2nd time this outdoor season and retained her #2 ranking in the Bay State league and a top 10 ranking in the state.

The meet was covered live by Fox 25 as it involved 4 undefeated teams facing off.

The girls won by usual landslide but boys meet came down to 4×4 with Weymouth diving for the relay win and meet tie. I left my camera in bag for most of meet but happened to take it out to get this shot:

The seniors conclude their Newton career with a victory lap around the track.

The seniors

Kayla will miss track:

Kayla and Carla:

Fox 25 News Clip: