KFHS girls excel in cold temps
Published 10:18 pm Thursday, March 28, 2013
King’s Fork High School’s girls’ outdoor track and field team had a good day on Wednesday in cold weather conditions while playing host to the second regular-season meet for the Southeastern District. Nansemond River High School registered a couple of event wins, too.
Gabrielle Snipes of King’s Fork placed first in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.63 seconds, and she also took first in the long jump with a leap of 17’0”.
Nansemond River High School freshman Brandee Johnson takes a break from her usual sprint-oriented events as she runs in the 4×800-meter relay during Wednesday’s district regular season meet at King’s Fork High School. Her team finished in second behind the Nansemond River ‘A’ team.
Roneka Spady won the 200-meter dash for King’s Fork with a time of 26.52 seconds, closely followed by teammates Courtney Ricks in second (26.56) and Brittany Dickens in third (26.81).
The Lady Bulldogs won the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relay events with times of 47.50 seconds and 4:21.76, respectively.
“I think we’re getting there,” King’s Fork track coach Marvin Ricks said. “We’re slowly getting there.”
The 4×100 team consisted of Dickens, Ricks, Snipes and Spady, while the 4×400 team included the same group except with Danielle Hill in place of Snipes.
Ricks said the recent cold weather has caused plenty of problems.
“We can’t even train properly, so we’ve just got to make do,” he said. “Once the weather kind of cooperates a little bit, we can really get into the next phase of our training.”
Nansemond River head coach Justin Byron and Ricks have similar approaches to these early meets in the outdoor season.
“Right now, we’re just using these opportunities, again, as training meets, and we work on executing certain parts of the races and just keeping our confidence up, basically,” Ricks said.
“At this point, we’re really just working on some things,” Byron said. “You see a lot of people running out of their events.”
Much of Nansemond River’s state champion 4×200-meter relay team was running the 4×800.
“It’s just a good opportunity to kind of get the kids out of their normal routine and just let them pretty much have some fun out there, coming off such a long indoor season,” Byron said.
The 4×200-meter runners helped put their long-distance team in first for much of the time, but then Nansemond River’s ‘A’ team took the lead on the anchor leg with good running by Shelbi Holloman. Her team — which included Michaela Banks, Kara Dixon and Candice James — won with a time of 11:30.61.
“I was extremely impressed with the 4×800 trying to give distance (running) a little recognition over at Nansemond River,” Byron said.
NR’s Zakiya Rashid won the shot put with a distance of 34’11”.
“I felt like it was a good day for her,” Byron said. “Obviously, not a great day, stats-wise, but a solid day, just knowing that you can go out there and compete in bad conditions I think is going to help her a lot.”
The next district girls’ outdoor track and field meet is scheduled for April 16 at Grassfield High School.
Following are the results from Wednesday’s girls’ outdoor track and field regular season Southeastern District meet:
- 100-meter dash: 1st-Snipes, Gabrielle KF 12.63; 6th-Jones, Jacquay KF 13.83
- 200-meter dash: 1st-Spady, Roneka KF 26.52; 2nd-Ricks, Courtney KF 26.56; 3rd-Dickens, Brittany KF 26.81
- 400-meter dash: 1st-Wright, Andrea IR 59.20; 3rd-Hill, Danielle KF 1:01.90
- 800-meter run: 1st-Cunniffe, Carolyn GHS 2:25.89; 11th-Copeland, Alexus LHS 2:43.88
- 1600-meter run: 1st-Wade, Sarah GB 5:41.16;
- 3200-meter run: 1st-Rock, Kelly WB 13:00.54
- 100-meter hurdles: 1st-Heath, Devin WB 16.26; 6th-Clouden, Khadijah LHS 18.90
- 300-meter hurdles: 1st-Heath, Devin WB 48.23; 8th-Clouden, Khadijah LHS 54.49
- 4×100-meter relay: 1st-King’s Fork ‘A’ 47.50; 5th-Nansemond River ‘A’ 55.09
- 4×400-meter relay: 1st-King’s Fork ‘A’ 4:21.76; 2nd-Nansemond River ‘A’ 4:31.69
- 4×800-meter relay: 1st-Nansemond River ‘A’ 11:30.61; 2nd-Western Branch ‘A’ 11:43.40
- High jump: 1st-Smith, Jade GHS 5-02.00
- Pole vault: 1st-Rich, Cassandra GHS 8-06.00; 2nd-Myles, Te’Shaibrah KF J8-06.00
- Long jump: 1st-Snipes, Gabrielle KF 17-00.00; 6th-Clouden, Khadijah LHS 14-08.00
- Triple jump: 1st-Parks, Milan WB 34-04.50; 5th-Rountree, Kiera LHS 28-06.00
- Shot put: 1st-Rashid, Zakiya NR 34-11.00; 8th-Lyles, Kara NR 29-07.00
- Discus throw: 1st-Johnston, Elizabeth HHS 101-00; 3rd-Rashid, Zakiya NR J95-07
