The Nansemond River High School girls’ team came in fourth at the 2013 Group AAA Eastern Region outdoor track and field championships over the weekend as the school won two events and King’s Fork High School won one at Todd Stadium in Newport News.

Sophomore Zakiya Rashid of Nansemond River produced a monster discus throw, winning the event with a 134’10” mark that shattered her previous best distance of 128’. The school’s 4×400-meter relay team won with a time of 3:58.13. The team included senior Kieaira Middleton, sophomores Candice James and Kara Lyles and freshman Brandee Johnson.

For King’s Fork, senior Davon Grayson won the long jump, leaping 23’9.75”.

In highlighting Rashid’s achievement, Nansemond River coach Justin Byron commented on how the mental side of field events is incredibly significant. Because of rain, the shot put competition happened on Saturday back-to-back with the discus throw.

“You have a couple of chances to perfect everything, and I feel like with that rain delay, it kind of threw her off mentally in the shot put,” Byron said.

Rashid finished fourth with a 36’0.5” mark, and Byron said she was down about it, but what followed was made even more impressive by it.

“Whatever she did in her mind to kind of reverse the negative inertia or the negative momentum (for) the discus coming from the shot — she went out for the discus and really looked amazing,” he said.

“And if I’m not mistaken, that throw now has her at No. 2 in the state,” he said.

She will vie for first at states in both the discus throw and the shot put.

King’s Fork coach Marvin Ricks was not surprised by Grayson’s success in the long jump.

“He performed, basically, where we expected him to,” he said. “We’re just trying to make sure we move him forward. So hopefully, he’ll pull together at states and let off at least one really good jump.”

Grayson, an East Carolina University commit for football, will be competing at states in the long jump, the high jump, the 4×100-meter relay and possibly the 200-meter dash.

“We have him scheduled to run the 200, we’re just going to see, make sure he’s still healthy, and everything, because he reports to football camp like two weeks after,” Ricks said.

Junior Gabrielle Snipes, among others, had a reduced presence that Ricks said was more precautionary than anything else, and mostly due to the weather not being conducive to running high speeds.

“Anybody who had a qualifying mark already, we didn’t worry about running them,” he said.

Like Ricks, Nansemond River coach Justin Byron is still trying to keep his team primed for next weekend.

“We still didn’t run everyone in their strongest events just to kind of have them ready to go for states,” he said. “I wouldn’t dare try to call regionals a warm-up, (but) it’s still a build-up.”

Part of the issue for Byron and his peers is in giving the team the maximum opportunities to win in both individual and relay events, but not allowing fatigue from one affect the other. For example, Brandee Johnson may compete at states in the 100- and 200-meter dashes along with the 4×100 relay, but then she could not run in the 4×400.

“We’ve got to find the formula,” Byron said.

Kieaira Middleton has qualified to be in the 400-meter run.

For King’s Fork, Snipes has qualified in the long jump, 100- and 200-meter dashes and the 4×100-meter relay, which includes junior Roneka Spady and sophomores Brittany Dickens and Courtney Ricks.

Spady is also qualified for the 200.

Senior Te’Shaibrah Myles will compete in the pole vault.

Junior Andrew Gould will be in the 400-meter run and participate in the 4×100-meter relay with Grayson, senior Charles Clark and sophomore Darrell Johnson.

The 2013 Virginia High School League Group AAA state outdoor track and field championships will begin on Friday afternoon at Todd Stadium in Newport News.

Following are the results from the 2013 Group AAA Eastern Region outdoor track and field championships:

Girls’ team rankings

(17 events scored)

1) Western Branch High School, 106.50

2) Grassfield High School, 48

3) Phoebus High School, 47

4) Nansemond River High School, 41

5) Floyd E. Kellam High School, 40

6) Kempsville High School, 38

7) First Colonial High School, 36

8) Ocean Lakes High School, 33

9) Great Bridge High School, 30

10) Hickory High School, 24

11) Frank W. Cox High School, 23

11) Tallwood High School, 23

13) Kecoughtan High School, 21

13) Green Run High School, 21

15) Bayside High School, 18

16) Bethel High School, 16

17) Hampton High School, 14

18) Landstown High School, 13

19) Indian River High School, 10

20) Norview High School, 8.25

21) King’s Fork High School, 8

21) Menchville High School, 8

23) Deep Creek High School, 7

24) Princess Anne High School, 5.25

25) Heritage High School (Newport News), 4

26) Churchland High School, 3

26) Warwick High School, 3

26) Woodside High School, 3

26) Gloucester High School, 3

30) Granby High School, 1

30) I.C. Norcom High School, 1

Boys’ team rankings

(17 events scored)

1) Western Branch High School, 116

2) Grassfield High School, 85

3) Oscar Smith High School, 67.50

4) Landstown High School, 48

5) I.C. Norcom High School, 33

5) Floyd E. Kellam High School, 33

7) Bayside High School, 29

8) Churchland High School, 27

9) Tallwood High School, 26

10) Ocean Lakes High School, 22

10) Hickory High School, 22

10) Kempsville High School, 22

13) King’s Fork High School, 16

13) Frank W. Cox High School, 16

15) Woodside High School, 14

16) Warwick High School, 11

17) Booker T. Washington High School, 10.50

18) Lake Taylor High School, 10

19) Phoebus High School, 9

20) First Colonial High School, 7

21) Hampton High School, 6

22) Great Bridge High School, 5

22) Deep Creek High School, 5

22) Norview High School, 5

25) Granby High School, 4

25) Princess Anne High School, 4

27) Maury High School, 3

27) Green Run High School, 3

29) Bethel High School, 2

Individual results and top Suffolk finishers

• Girls’ 100-meter dash: 1st-Carolyn Brown, Phoebus, 12.015; 2nd-Kiera Brown, GB, 12.017; 4th-Brandee Johnson, NR, 12.45
• Girls’ 200-meter dash: 1st-Kiera Brown, GB, 24.84; 6th-Roneka Spady, KF, 25.73
• Girls’ 400-meter dash: 1st-Andrea Wright, IR, 56.78; 4th-Kieaira Middleton, NR, 1:00.67
• Girls’ 800-meter run: 1st-Ebony White, WB, 2:19.61
• Girls’ 1600-meter run: 1st-Abby Motley, Kellam, 5:05.59
• Girls’ 3200-meter run: 1st-Nicole Park, Ocean Lakes, 11:10.41
• Girls’ 100-meter hurdles: 1st-Chantel Ray, Hampton, 13.84
• Girls’ 300-meter hurdles: 1st-Summer Walter, Bayside, 46.55
• Girls’ 4×100-meter relay: 1st-WB ‘A’, 48.58; 3rd-NR ‘A’, 49.30
• Girls’ 4×400-meter relay: 1st-NR ‘A’, 3:58.13; 7th-KF ‘A’, 4:07.83
• Girls’ 4×800-meter relay: 1st-WB ‘A’, 9:42.79
• Girls’ high jump: 1st-Chenera Lacey, Cox, 5-07.00
• Girls’ pole vault: 1st-Jaqueline Meeks, First Colonial, 10-09.00; 6th-Te’Shaibrah Myles, KF, J8-09.00
• Girls’ long jump: 1st-Kennedy King, Phoebus, 18-08.00; 9th-Gabrielle Snipes, KF, 16-09.75
• Girls’ triple jump: 1st-Jayme Thomas, Bethel, 37-09.75; 16th-Kiera Rountree, LHS, 32-07.00
• Girls’ shot put: 1st-Deandra Doyle, Kempsville, 38-11.50; 4th-Zakiya Rashid, NR, 36-00.50
• Girls’ discus throw: 1st-Zakiya Rashid, NR, 134-10; 10th-Hannah Hinson, KF, 98-03
• Boys’ 100-meter dash: 1st-Isaiah Harper, GHS, 10.82
• Boys’ 200-meter dash: 1st-Michael Cherry, OS, 21.37
• Boys’ 400-meter dash: 1st-Michael Cherry, OS, 47.31
• Boys’ 800-meter run: 1st-Patrick O’Connell, Cox, 1:56.00
• Boys’ 1600-meter run: 1st-Billy Boros, Kellam, 4:21.79; 14th-Miguel Ramos, KF, 4:45.83
• Boys’ 3200-meter run: 1st-Billy Boros, Kellam, 9:51.59
• Boys’ 110-meter hurdles: 1st-Aaron Simpson, WB, 14.41
• Boys’ 300-meter hurdles: 1st-Byron Robinson, WB, 38.34
• Boys’ 4×100-meter relay: 1st-Bayside ‘A’, 43.01
• Boys’ 4×400-meter relay: 1st-Bayside ‘A’, 3:20.21; 10th-NR ‘A’, 3:31.72
• Boys’ 4×800-meter relay: 1st-WB ‘A’, 7:59.65
• Boys’ high jump: 1st-Grant Holloway, GHS, 6-11.00; 3rd-Davon Grayson, KF, 6-05.00
• Boys’ pole vault: 1st-Shaw Barfield, Lake Taylor, 13-00.00
• Boys’ long jump: 1st-Davon Grayson, KF, 23-09.75
• Boys’ triple jump: 1st-Aaron Worrell, Woodside, 49-05.50; 21st-Antonio Boone, LHS, 38-05.00
• Boys’ shot put: 1st-Andrew Hines, GHS, 60-06.00; 14th-Alexander Holloway, KF, 43-02.50
• Boys’ discus throw: 1st-Jaja Davis, Landstown, 160-06; 17th-Alexander Holloway, KF, 117-02