The King’s Fork High School boys’ track and field team tied for third at the Class 4 Region A meet.

The Bulldogs have put together some much needed momentum as they head into the state meet next weekend. At the regional meet Wednesday afternoon, the boys’ track and field team tied for third place with Jamestown High School. They scored a team total of 67 points and were four points away from taking second place.

Shamond Smith had a nice meet, taking first place in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:41.76. Smith also took third in the 1,600-meter run. In the sprinting events, Nasir Davis and Robert Vazquez stood out. Davis placed third in the 55-meter run, while Vazquez took second in the 500-meter dash with a time of 1:09.35, which is a personal record.

Both the 4×200 and 4×800 relay teams took second place. Davis, Gerard Heard, Malachi Echols and Bryan Walker ran the 4×200 relay. Smith, Jack Van Straten, Marcus Ramos and Robert Vazquez ran the 4×800. The Bulldogs will look to try to keep their same lineups for the relay teams at the state meet. Last year at the indoor state meet, the Bulldogs had a relay team finish as the state runner-up.

“We are pleased with where we finished, because it represents continued growth for our program,” Bulldogs coach Shawn Warren said. “We’ve become a more complete team in the sense that this year we have state qualifiers in running events from the 55-meter dash all the way up to 1,600 meters, and we’re no longer reliant on just sprinters and jumpers. We’re still not as deep as we would like to be, but we still have some very good front-line talent.”

A few setbacks Wednesday kept the Bulldogs from potentially taking a regional championship. Davis had an injury, along with other players thad had some slight injuries. Thus, the Bulldogs were unable to get some of the points they needed in certain events because of it. The margin of error was slim for the Bulldogs if they wanted to win the regional championship.

“Our guys really stepped up and performed well, especially our middle distance crew, and we actually led the meet going into the 300 meters,” Warren said. “We left some points on the track that would have put us in contention to win it. But in hindsight, we performed in spite of the setbacks, and finishing third represents a solid breakthrough for the program under this coaching staff.”

The Class 4 indoor state meet will he held Feb. 23-24 at Roanoke College.