Jared jumps to 11th in 2011 US Track and Field Youth National Championship

Jared jumped 16′ .25″ to place 11th in the 2011 USATF Youth Nationals in Myrtle Beach, SC.

Jared and Dad got up at 3:45am Saturday morning after 3 hours of sleep to head to Myrtle Beach for the USATF Youth Nationals at Doug Shaw stadium. The Long Jump was at 8am Sunday (photos, results, Meet Coverage Link, Meet Home Page).

This was only the 5th time Jared has competed in long jump on a real runway and he had to sort out his steps on his own without a coach. He got in three legal jumps, but they were about a foot behind the take-off line. He missed the finals and podium by just 4″. A PR would have moved him down to 5th, but he improved from his seeding before the meet of ~13th. The other more experienced jumpers in the field were quite talented and had similar take-off problems.

It was quite an experience to compete against some of the best jumpers from across the country and to see how top end professional track meets are run. Our goal was to use this as preparation for future meets. The long jump had eight uniformed officials running the event, including someone manning a wind speed guage for each jump to allow for official records to be set.

We had a lot of fun in our two days in Myrtle Beach with trips to the beach, go-carts, water park, and several movies. The weather was a sweltering 90F.

Athletes march out of check in area to the field:

Warm ups:

One of the top 3 jumpers:

1st Jump (see photo sequence)

2nd jump:

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I didn’t watch the viewfinder for 2nd jump video abover and didn’t take pictures of third jump. You can’t give athletes feedback on their take-off mark based on video/photos so I needed to be careful not to get him DQ-ed.

Kayla’s teammate Carla Forbes had been at the stadium earlier in the week winning the triple jump at the world youth championship trials and making the US world team. We saw the results posted as we arrived in the stadium on Saturday.

2011 New England Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships

The Prior family took home four medals (a gold and three bronze) from the 2011 New England Junior Olympic Track Championships held at Fitchburg State University on 6/18 (photos, results, meet info). This is only the 2nd time they have competed together in same meet.

Kayla started the day by jumping to 3rd in both the long and triple jumps to pick up two bronze medals and two berths to the region 1 meet. This was the final track meet that Kayla’s infected tonsils will be coming along for the ride.

In the afternoon, Jared advanced to the 100m finals, winning his trials heat in the 2nd fastest time overall (12.76 FAT) and then matched it in the final (12.77 FAT) for 3rd place. Kayla was on the infield before the race teaching him how to start from a crouch position.

After baking on the sunny infield for a couple of hours waiting for the 100m trials and finals and completing those two races, Jared headed to the Long Jump pit to face a field of 16 jumpers. He struggling with his steps a bit in warm ups, but lead off with a safe 5.19m (17’1/4″) jump with plenty of room behind the board. After two strong looking fouls, he finished off with a 5.02m (16’5 1/2″) jump. His opening jump outdistanced the field by over 7 inches to earn him the title of 2011 New England Junior Olympic Long Jump Champion (footnote: Maine and Connecticut have separate meets but he out distanced those winners as well) in the 1997-1998 Youth division. This mark would have also won the Massachusetts Middle School Championship last week (only Brown middle school, based on winning the all-city meet, represented Newton at that meet).

The top six places from this meet advance to the “Northeast” Region 1 championship , (entries) at RPI in Troy, New York on July 9th (Jared) and 10th (Kayla). Kayla and Jared advance in all their 4 events. Region 1 combines NY, CT, RI, MA, VT, ME, NH, and NY. The top 5 from each of the 16 regions advance to the National Championship at Wichata State University in Wichita, Kansas.

Jared’s long jump PR from his middle school season (17’5″, 5.31m) is close enough to the 5.33m guideline to qualify him for the Youth Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Myrtle Beach (info, entries) so Dad and Jared will do an overnight trip down there to compete on July 3rd. His PR would place 10th last year as would Kayla’s LJ PR (but she will be recuperating that week).

Newton Lions wrap up spring season with 1-2 overtime loss to Lexington in MITOC playoffs

Jared’s town Bay Area Youth soccer (BAYS) travel team was Newton 2nd team for 7th-8th graders (team photos, Jared photo sequences). They finished the regular season with a 8-0-2 record to win their six team division last week. This enabled them to compete with other eight other division 2 winners for the chance to represent the 180 or so boston area youth soccer teams in the state-wide Massachusetts Tournament of Champions.

They faced Lexington’s #1 team last night in the first round of the playoffs. The Lexington team was from a higher division and also had a 8-0-2 record. After going down 0-1 they came back with a 1-1 equalizer and the game finished regulation in a 1-1 tie. That put the game into two 10 minute overtime periods. They team played well but Lexington had an explosive striker who scored the go ahead goal for them. This was the most exciting soccer game I’ve seen since Jared started playing. Jared played the entire 90 minutes as a midfielder despite the team having 5 subs.

It was a disappointing loss, but the team played very well against an excellent opponent. The fall season (with Jared on injured reserve) saw his team with only a 2-6-2 record, so they have come a long way. Between basketball and soccer, Jared was blessed to play with two undefeated regular season Newton teams this year.

Below is photo number 47,370 taken in year since Dad got his camera for Father’s day one year ago. An average of 130/day! Not a bad photo considering it was taken right after the loss….

Jared triple runner-up at Newton All-City Championships

Jared concluded his first middle school track season taking home three 2nd place ribbons for the long jump (16’8″), 100m (12.2 PR), and 4x100m relay (52.58?) in the Newton All-City meet (photos). The meet brought together the 6th-8th graders from the four middle schools in the city. In the 4x100m Jared achored them team from being just slightly ahead of 4th into a strong 2nd.

preparing for 1st long jump:

Getting some pointers:

Taking off on 16’8″ jump (a bit left on the board):

100m start:

Getting hand-off for 4x100m relay anchor leg:

Kayla jumps to 5th in Eastern Mass Division 1 State Championships

It is always nice when the Boston Globe writes the sports.priorfamily.org entry:

The girls’ competition was much tighter, with a great showing in the field events proving the difference for Newton North, which finished with 93 1/2 points, 8 more than Andover.

The Tigers earned 24 points in the long jump on strong performances by Carla Forbes (first, 17 feet 5 3/4 inches), Kayla Wong (second, 16-9 1/2), and Kayla Prior (fifth, 16- 1/4). They added 18 points in the discus as Ellen Goldberg (114-1) and Tatiana Froehlich (112-3) went 1-2.

“Getting the big points in the long jump and discus gives us a big shot in the arm,’’ said coach Joe Tranchita. “Execution was the key and that really was the focus. We weren’t looking at points, we weren’t looking at matchups.’’

Kayla completed her 2011 track season with a 16′ 1/4″ long jump for 5th place and 4 points in the Division 1 championships on Saturday in Andover. Together the Newton North long jumpers placed 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 7th, to contribute 24 points to Newton’s 93.5 to 87.5 win over Andover and the other 32 scoring schools in the meet (photos, results, Boston Globe article, Boston Herald article, Newton Track Blog, Newton Tab article, Newton tab photos) .

As the Boston Globe notes above, the long jump was one of the 1st events completed and having the Newton jumpers exceed their already high expectations based on incoming seeds by 3 points set the meet’s momentum in Newton’s favor. The 31 other largest eastern Mass schools could only field 2 athletes to beat her. This was Kayla’s first trip to a state meet medal podium. Her 4 points ranked her as Newton’s 7th highest point scorer for the day and enabled Newton to enter the final 4x400m relay with a tie for the win locked up. She also ran the 100m for 17th in 13.48a.

From the Boston Globe today:

Photo from Andrea Keklak’s (800m record setter) dad. I work with her mom.

Day Middle School defeats Bigelow – Jared wins 3 events

Jared won the long jump (16′), the 100m (12.3), and anchored the 4x100m relay to a win to help Day defeat Bigelow middle school Friday (photos) at the Newton North track. Kayla officiated the girls long jump on one runway while Jared jumped on the other (see photos below). He finishes up his middle school season Friday at the all-city meet.

Jared competes on a real track

Jared had his first track meet on a track rather than a grassy field in the rain at the Newton South track today against Brown and Oak Hill Middle schools. He long jumped a 17′ 5″ personal best for 2nd and ran the 100m in a PR 12.24 (12.48c) for 2nd. His 4x100m team took 2nd as well. According to Athletic.net (which doesn’t have Masssachusetts schools listed), the long jump mark would rank him 225th out of 11,000 middle schoolers listed on the site (top 2%) and (if grade entries are correct) 25th among 7th graders.

Newton Lions move into 1st place

Jared Boston Area Youth Soccer (BAYS) town soccer team (Lions) moved into 1st place in U14 Div2 Section C with a win over Weston Saturday to bring their record to 5-0-2 with 3 games remaining in their season. On Wednesday night they defeated Wayland. Last Saturday they defeated Winchester (photos). Jared scored a goal. Click here to see the attack.

The winner of the division moves to the Bays playoffs against other section 2 winners to determine the section 2 team that will represent BAYS in the the Mass Tournament of champions (MTOC) at the end of June.

Kayla dashes to 100m personal best/state qualifier

Kayla ran a personal best 13.24 FAT (equivalent to 13.0 hand time) in the 100m dash at the South Shore Principal’s meet Saturday ( Newton tab article, results, photos, jump sequences ). She placed 5th place [see race sequence), improving from 17th seed in the 30 entrant field. She qualified for the division 1 state championships next week (Saturday, Andover HS, 9:30AM), where she should be 13th seed or better (performance lists link). She has also qualified for D1 state meet in the long jump. Kayla also scored in the triple jump in the meet with a 31’1″ jump for 5th place and a total of 4 points toward Newton 130.33 win over runner up Brockton (68).

Kayla’s now ranks #2 in 100m at Newton North behind Carla Forbes so she may play a role on 4x100m next week as well. The 100m mark improved her seasonal best by 0.5 second and personal best by 0.2.