NRHS’ Lyles hits her stride

Nansemond River High School senior track and field star Kara Lyles has never been better at the state level than she was on Monday in the Virginia High School League Group 4A state indoor track and field championships.

Again comparing her to Superman when championship meets roll around, Warriors coach Justin Byron said, “She goes into the (phone) booth, and she comes out and she takes over.”

Her performance helped her edge out Nansemond-Suffolk Academy baseball standout Toby Buchanan to become the Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week.

Byron has pointed out on multiple occasions how success is quantifiable in track and field. This makes it easy to illustrate just how good Lyles was on Monday.

The top eight individuals for open events and top eight relay teams for relay events earned points for their school teams, and the school team with the most points won the team state championship.

Never before had the Lady Warriors won the indoor state title, though they came incredibly close last year, losing by just 2.5 points. But this year, they won by 44, and Lyles single-handedly produced more than a quarter of her team’s 122 points, with 33.

She won a state title in a relay event, and in open events, she won two state titles and set four personal records.

“I was amazed at what I can do, but not only what I can do, but what God can do through me,” Lyles said.

Her personal records came in the 500-meter dash, which she won with a time of 1:15.46; the long jump, which she won with a leap of 19 feet 11.25 inches; the high jump, in which she took second with a jump of 5 feet 4 inches; and the 55-meter dash, in which she placed fourth with a time of 7.24 seconds.

Of the four personal records in one meet, Byron said, “That’s just something that rarely happens.”

He said her performance Monday ranks her with Warrior greats James Taylor and Sha’Keela Saunders.

“The hard work that I’ve been putting in, that really prepared me,” Lyles said.

After the narrow loss in the last indoor state meet, the team had a chip on its shoulder, she added. But a healthy dose of self-motivation also played a part.

Byron said when he trains his athletes, the training is set up to help them peak at the end of the season.

Lyles followed and executed the plan, and she never lost hope.

“I didn’t have the best season in the beginning,” she said. A lot of people might lose hope in that situation, but “I really don’t let that hinder me,” she added

“Nothing was stellar about her performance throughout the season, and then the state meet came, and it was just like — boom,” Byron said.

“Championships (are) something, like, totally different,” Lyles said. “It’s like (I’m) a different person.”