Kayla jumped to a huge personal best in the triple jump at the Empire 8 championship on Saturday, jumping 36’0.25″ to place 5th (results). Her previous PR was 34’6″ and her high school PR was 33’5.5″.
The mark qualifiers her in a 2nd event at the ECAC championships and moves her to 2nd on the Ithaca College depth chart in the triple jump. She also ran a personal best 8.38 in the 55 meter dash. The triple jump is at 4pm on Friday March 1st while the long jump is at 1:30pm on Saturday March 2nd (schedule).
Photo of Kayla triple jumping in Cornell Relays in December:
Kayla jumped to an indoor personal best 17′ 2 1/4″ to place 6th at the Cornell Indoor Challenge in Ithaca on Saturday (Ithaca College News Article, results). You wouldn’t guess it from the Ithaca news release, but Kayla was one of only 3 Ithaca athletes to score points in the meet (scored 6 places deep).
The jump qualifies her for the ECAC Division III Championships to be held in the Armory in New York City on Saturday March 2nd at 1:30pm. The Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference represents 186 division III schools and is the highest level championship short of the NCAA championships (which requires an 18’4″ jump for provisional qualification).
Just 10 weeks after breaking a bone in her foot in training, Kayla showed surprisingly good form in her first track meet representing Ithaca College at the 2012 Cornell Relays (results, photo gallery of KP). Kayla set a new personal best in the 60m (0.11s better than her equivalent 55m dash PR), matched her PR in the triple jump (33′ 5.25″) and went 16’0.5″ in the long jump.
She had a track reunion with former teammate and now cross town rival Kayla Wong. J
The Newton North seniors had their graduation ceremony at Boston College’s Conti Forum, capping off 3 days of exciting events for KP and her fans (Prom, Open, Graduation). Click here for the photo gallery.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
