Kayla soared 16′ 7″ on her first attempt — her 2nd longest all-time performance –to place 6th in the Massachusetts Division 1 state championships (photos). She came in seeded 5th based on her big PR last week of 16’8″, but would have only been seeded 12th based on her previous season best of 16’1.75″.
Carla Forbes won in a meet record, USA #4 19’9” on her final attempt.
Newton scored an amazing 20 points in the event placing athletes 1st, 4th, 6th, and 7th and taking half the slots in the 8-person final. The team jumping depth in the event became as big a news as Carla’s record, with the Globe, Herald, the Newton track blog, The Newton Tab, and Milesplit mentioning her and her teammates accomplishment in their meet summaries. That’s about as newsworthy a 6th place as they come!
Only three athletes from the other 47 schools attending got in ahead of her, with one being the #2 hurdler in New England from Somerville.
Kayla was Newton’s 6th highest point scorer, contributing 3 points to Newton’s 66-43.5 victory over Lincoln Sudbury as well as key early confidence-building momentum for team, which trailed until the final relays started running. She was one of only 6 Newton athletes to score in individual events and one of only 3 to compete in two individual events (She also ran the 55m hurdles in 9.53 for 24th, matching her incoming seed).
Note that without Carla’s point contribution (winning LJ, 55m, and anchoring 4x400m), Newton would still have barely won, with Kayla’s hypothetical 4 points moving up to 5th providing the margin over Lincoln-Sudbury.
Kayla gets her “Metal”
Kayla performance qualified to return to the State Open next week as 19th seed in the state-wide meet which brings together the top 24 competitors from the divisional meets. Nanny and Papa made the long trek to Boston to support Kayla and see her compete (sorry no photo). Thanks Nanny and Papa!’
The metal-ists:
From the globe:
Junior standout Carla Forbes won the long jump with a meet record of 19 feet 9 inches, and teammates Kayla Wong (16-10 3/4) and Kayla Prior (16-7) took fourth and sixth place, respectively.
From the Herald:
Almost as stunning as Forbes’ effort was Newton North putting four jumpers on the medal stand in a thorough domination of the event.
From Milesplit:
As impressive as Forbes’ jump was, it was almost overshadowed by the fact that Newton North put four athletes in scoring positions. In addition to Forbes and Wong, Kayla Prior finished 6th (16’7â€) and Maeve Larkin was 7th (16’5.75â€). All totaled, Newton North walked away with 20 points in the event!
From the Tab:
The win was the second of the day for Forbes, who also defended her long jump title with a meet-record leap of 19 feet, 9 inches. That effort erased Arantxa King’s 2007 mark of 19-6½. The Tigers were thoroughly dominant in the event with four athletes taking home medals.
Senior Kayla Wong was a strong fourth in 16-10¾, while senior Kayla Prior took sixth (16-7) and junior Maeve Larkin was seventh (16-5¾). Newton South junior Kyra Visnick was eighth with a 16-2-¾ leap.
North picked up a whopping 20 points with that one event and the Tigers never let up as they captured their third consecutive team title with 66 points. Joe Tranchita’s squad scored in eight of 12 events to easily defeat Lincoln-Sudbury (43.5) and Acton-Boxboro (36).
Here is a slideshow of the long jump competition:
The winning seniors:
The winning team:
Kayla was featured in a photo gallery on the Boston Globe website on State Champions:
From a photographer friend. I bought the original as a download.
