Steve and Jack traveled to neutral Rhode Island to face off in the Ocean Community YMCA Triathlon at misquamicut Beach on September 23rd (results, news). The race consisted of a 1/2 mile ocean swim, a 16 mile bike ride, and a 3 mile run. Steve had the 8th fastest swim leg of the 188 person field while Jack was 52nd. Steve’s total time was 1:28:05 for 5th in his age group while Jack came in at 1:33:25. Jack out-biked Steve and trailed by only 1:45 at the end of the bike leg, but Steve’s lightning transition into his low budget boat socks and sub 8min/mi pace in the run put the race away. Jack still wins after the agreed 1 min/year adjustment :-).
Jack and Steve competed as “Team Pain and Suffering” in the Dave Parcells Madison Sprint Triathlon in Madison, CT on Saturday September 8th (relay results, individual results). After getting up at 4am to travel and check in for the 7am start, we learned the ocean swim portion of the triathlon was canceled due to chop, so the race became a 1.25mi run — 13mi bike – 3mi run biathlon.
Jack covered the runs at 7:21/mile and 8:22/mile pace respectively and Steve covered the bike at 20.6 mph pace for a total team time of 1:15:29 and 6th out of 19 teams. We won the “same last name” division, with Jack surging past the “The O’Connor Boys” on in the last mile of the run to win by 23 seconds. We also got 1st in the 2-man relay division although 80 1-man teams did manage to beat us :-). Steve also won awards for oldest bike on the course, oldest helmet, and oldest bike glasses.
Originally Steve was to to do the swim and the bike. Jack was a last minute sub for Steve’s co-worker who had his gall-bladder taken out last week.
He was the only athlete to win 3 events in any division. His long jump mark of 18′ 9.5″ broke the 18′ 7.25″ meet record for the event set in 2005.
The junior division of the meet dates back to at least 1999, while the games themselves date back to 1984 and represent competitors from across Massachusetts. Due to the “limited” number of competitors who showed up to face him, Jared completed his 4 long jumps in the span of 5 minutes.
He won the 100m by a margin of 0.40 (12.08 final, 12.03 in trials) — see photo sequence.
He ends his outdoor season undefeated against 14yo/8th graders in all of his events (except 100m loss to Arthur Baygboe in NE JO) and with 3 state meet records to his credit (this record along with Middle school state meet LJ and 4×1 relay).
Junior division event winners are summarized below. See baystategames.org for full results).
Jared improved on his seeding in both the long jump and triple jump with 5th place medal-stand finishes in the USATF Region 1 Junior Olympics held on Long Island on Sunday (photos, results, Waltham paper). This meet included the top athletes from New York and New England. Likely the youngest athlete in the competition, Jared was the #1 15yo in the long jump and #2 in the triple jump (in his 4th triple jump competition).
These finishes gave him the option to advance to the National Junior Olympic Championships in Baltimore later in the month with the top 5 finishers from each of the 16 regions around the country qualifing to advance.
Jared and Dad used some Delta frequent flyer miles to fly down to the 103F heat of Arlington, Texas for the 2012 USATF Youth Nationals. Jared jumped 19’2″ on hist first attempt to place 6th in the 16-competitor field (results, jump sequences). He led the 8AM competition after the 1st round and was 3rd going into the 6th round. Only 1 jumper had a better 2nd-best jump than his 19′ 3/4″ 2nd jump.
He was the youngest competitor in the field of mainly of 16yo sophomores. The intermediate boys division consists of those born 1996-1997, so his October 1997 birthday put him on the younger end of the bracket.
The meet doesn’t draw as much depth as the junior olympic Nationals in late July, but Texas is a track hotbed, so the local talent made the meet competitive. The jumpers he beat included three with PRs of 20’8, 20’4, and 19’8″.
Jared improved over 3 feet from his 16′ jump at this meet 1 year ago, where he placed 11th against 13-14yos.
Jared also qualified for the triple jump by jumping 38’6″ in his first ever competition 10 days before. He jumped 36’3″ on Friday morning to place 8th in his 3rd ever competition (results, jump sequences).
We stayed North of the complex and had views of the Dallas Coyboys and Texas Rangers stadiums from our balcony.
Jared was the first athlete to arrive at the venue at 6:30am. His warm up gave him an edge:
Long jump competitors head to the pit:
The field:
Jared prepares for his 1st attempt:
Take off on his 1st 19’2″ jump:
Jared sails into morning sun on his last attempt:
Jared receives his 6th place “Metal”:
Jared attacks his last triple jump attempt:
We had to catch a plane so didn’t stay for the triple jump award ceremony.
