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.
Jared continued his undefeated middle school season winning the 100m, long jump and 4x100m against Watertown. He has previous won these events in meets against all the Newton middle schools (Bigelow, Oak Hill, Brown) as well in earlier meets on the Day grass track. His time of 11.6 in the 100m (11.84c) ranks 82 of 16,000 nationwide results posted on athletic.net. He also had his 2nd best long jump of his career jumping 17’11 3/4″ and anchored the 4x100m relay team to a 50.5(?) win.
While Kayla was busy taking home long jump silver and 4x100m gold at the Bay State Conference Championships, Jared was competing in an intersquad track meet back in Waltham with the Waltham Track club. As Kayla made her way into the finals, Lisa texted me the news that Jared has improved his personal best by 9″, hitting 18’6″ on the 1st attempt. This mark ranks him 69th in the nation among over 13,500 reported middle school results on athletic.net.
He also set a personal bests of 11.8 in the 100m dash and of 25.2 in the 200m dash.
On Wednesday afternoon Newton North traveled to Weymouth high school for the 2012 Bay State Conference Outdoor Track Championships (results,photos, Newton Tab article). Kayla competed in the long jump, 100m, and 4x100m.
In the long jump, Kayla fouled her first attempt, had a short jump for her 2nd, and then made a clutch 16’1″ jump to advance to the 8-person finals in 6th place. She then fired off a 16’7″ jump to move into 2nd place for good, only bested by National Champion Carla Forbes (jump sequence). She completed the Bay State league portion of her season ranked #2 of 88 league long jumpers, improving from her 6th place indoor ranking. She currently ranks 11th overall state-wide.
After completing the long jump, Kayla anchored the Newton North 4x100m team to victory in 50.61 to complete an undefeated season for that team in league matchups (youtube video). They currently rank 7th in the state. She also ran the 100m in 13.70 into a headwind for 2nd in her heat and 8th place overall. Her next meet is the South Shore Principals meet on Saturday and then on to the Division 1 State Championships next Sunday.
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.
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.
Kayla competed under the lights at the Weston Twilight Invitational, placing 6th in the long jump with a 16’6″ coming off an injury layoff (photos, results, milesplit coverage) . She also anchored the 4x100m relay to a season’s best 50.76 win over MA#2 Somerville. Kayla anchored and held off a charge (photo sequence) by meet MVP and milesplit athlete of the week Nicole Genard, the 2nd fastest indoor hurdler in New England.
As an added bonus, Justin had the announcer ask her to prom over the PA system (she said yes).
Meet Highlight video (long jumps at 0:41 and 4x100m at 3:11 — don’t miss it):
Jared has completed dual meets against the three Newton middle schools (Brown, Oak Hill, and Day) and is undefeated in his events (100m, long jump, and 4x200m relay) and had led his team to an undefeated season thus far. He jumped 17’2″ in the uphill Day pit and ran 11.3 for 100 yards over grass.
Kayla joined up with National Champion Carla Forbes and Ali Hurwitz to break the MSTCA Division 1 State Relays Triple Jump relay record (set by North in 2010) by almost 2 feet (photos, PA Announcement of Record). With temperatures in the low 40’s and swirling winds, Kayla cranked out a near PR 33’5.5″ triple jump to break her 4th state relay meet record and 5th school relay record of the season. While it helps to have the National champion on your relay for record breaking, 3x Kayla’s mark would have been good enough to win the competition alone.
The Newton North girls captured their third consecutive team title and established the lone meet record of the day. The Tigers’ triple jump squad of indoor national champion Carla Forbes, Allison Hurwitz and Kayla Prior combined for a 32.98-meter victory, bettering North’s record of 32.47 in 2010. Forbes had the longest jump of the day at 39-9 and Hurwitz broke her personal best with a 35-5.
Forbes anchored Newton North’s 4:06.26 win in the 4 x 400 with a 60.0 split. The Tigers finished with 57 points to defeat runner-up Andover (50 points) and third place Brockton (41.5).
“In the triple, the wind was sort of swirling,†said Newton North coach Joe Tranchita. “It was tough to get a good read on it. You’re not sure if you should make adjustments to your approach or not.
“All things considered, they did a really nice job. We got to the last round we were trying to stretch it to get the state record, but with the wind it was just asking a lot.
Girls Triple Jump
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All-Class: # 33.60m 2004 Hopkinton HS, (110′ 3″)
Div. I: * 32.47m 5/15/2010 Newton North HS, (106′ 2.25″)
Name Year School Finals Points
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1 Newton North, Girls Newton No. 32.98m* 108-02.50 10
2 Brockton, Girls Brockton 30.57m 100-03.50 8
3 Weymouth, Girls Weymouth 30.29m 99-04.50 6
4 Chelmsford, Girls Chelmsford 29.99m 98-04.75 4
5 New Bedford, Girls New Bedford 29.02m 95-02.50 2
6 Andover, Girls Andover HS 28.84m 94-07.50 1
No other North athlete (or Massachusetts athlete) has broken so many state relay meet records this season. Its not easy to research without names for each team, but its likely that she and Carla share the lead for most records held (Kayla 4x50m, 4x50m hurdles, 3xLJ, 3xTJ, Carla 4x50m, 3xLJ, 3xTJ, 4x400m from 2011).
Due to a slight muscle strain behind her knee and some trouble with steps last week, her coach opted to put her in the “B” long jump relay. She led the “B” team with 16’1″ jump for a total of 46’2″ which would up being good enough for 3rd and 6 points toward the team title (jump photos). The “A” team had a foul in a later flight so her effort was clutch to keeping North in the hunt. She likely placed 3rd or 4th individually (no results posted). 3x her jump would have come up just 4″ short of the winning total.
Girls Long Jump
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All-Class: # 16.43m 5/15/2010 Pembroke HS, (53′ 11″)
Div. I: * 16.11m 5/17/2008 Newton North HS, (52′ 1.25″)
Name Year School Finals Points
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1 New Bedford, Girls New Bedford 14.83m 48-08.00 10
2 Attleboro, Girls Attleboro 14.11m 46-03.50 8
3 Newton North, Girls B Newton No. 14.07m 46-02.00 6
4 Acton-Boxboro, Girls Acton-Boxboro 14.04m 46-00.75 4
5 Weymouth, Girls Weymouth 13.81m 45-03.75 1.50
5 Brockton, Girls Brockton 13.81m 45-03.75 1.50
Over the course of her 4 year career, Kayla contributed to 103 points at her eight state relay meets and accumulated nine gold medals along with 2 thirds and a sixth.
