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.â€
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.
Jared earned a 6th place in the long jump and a 7th place in the 200m at the 2013 Mass State Track Coaches Association Coaches Invitational in New Bedford Saturday (Newton Tab article, results, LJ photos, 200m photos). Jared jumped 20’7.5″ in long jump and ran 23.52 into headwind in 200m. He was the only freshman to earn a medal in the state-level meet and one of only 6 underclassmen to do so.
Jared set a new 22.4 200m personal best taking 2nd in the 200m as Newton North defeated Weymouth 101 – 35 to conclude a 7-0 undefeated season (results, photos). He defeated a 49.6 400m runner from Weymouth, who was responsible for the dramatic Weymouth 4×4 win that tied this meet last year. The 22.4 ranks him 29th in the country among freshman on athletic.net and 71 of 22,000 on milesplit.com. In Massachusetts, it ties him for 3rd in the Bay State league rankings (behind teammate Ryan and UConn bound PJ Hayes from Walpole) and gives him a top 10 ranking overall on athletic.net (state database is not complete).
He also took 2nd in the long jump to his teammate Dave (20’6″) and anchored the 4x100m to a come from behind photo-finish win.
Jared was 3rd highest dual meet point scorer on the North team and (I think) 4th highest scorer in the league, contributing 59 individual points and 35 points via the 7 wins of the undefeated 4x100m relay (67.5 total if you allocate 1.25/relay).
Video of Newton North winning 4x100m relay (Jared anchor):
Kayla placed 6th in the long jump (5.12m ) and 4th in the triple jump (10.89m) at the New York State Track Conference Championships, held at St. Laurence on Friday and Saturday  (results, day 1 press release,  day 2 press release).  She earned 8 points for Ithaca’s win, improving on her 7th and 5th place seeds respectively.
FILE PHOTO from Sam Howell Invitational at Princeton earlier this year:
