Final Results
LANDOVER, Md. – Saturday was a record-setting day for a Norfolk State men's track and field team accustomed to breaking records.
The Spartans kept alive their own streak of consecutive MEAC titles Saturday, winning their seventh straight indoor championship at the Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex.
The Spartans finished with 161.5 points. Maryland Eastern Shore was second with 93.5. NSU won six of the seven races that were run on Saturday, and eight of the 10 track events during the meet.
Senior distance runner Josef Tessema earned MEAC Men's Most Outstanding Runner honors for the second straight year. He repeated his trio of victories from 2011, winning the 5,000 meters on Friday and both the mile and 3,000 meters on Saturday. He set a meet record in the latter, finishing in 8 minutes, 34.21 seconds. That took more than 15 seconds off the previous meet record of David Kimani of Hampton in 2010 (8:49.99).
Tessema, who also ran a leg on the winning distance medley relay team Friday, contributed 32.5 points to NSU's total.
That was one of five meet records tied or set during the meet by the Spartans, four of which came on Saturday. Senior Sean Holston earned a sweep of the 200 and 400 meters for the third straight year and broke his own meet record in both events Saturday. He clocked a 21.08 in the 200 and 47.24 in the 400. His previous meet records were 21.32 in the 200 from the 2010 championship, and 47.44 in the 400 from last year's MEAC indoor meet.
In the 60 meters, junior James Taylor sprang a bit of an upset by defeating defending MEAC champion and national top-five ranked runner Reggie Dixon. Taylor won in a season-best time of 6.74 seconds.
The only race that NSU did not win Saturday was the 60-meter hurdles. Keith Nkrumah, who tied the meet record with a time of 7.86 seconds in his Friday preliminary heat, fell down in the finals. But Nkrumah had a hand in NSU's final gold medal and record-setting performance of the meet. The team of Nkrumah, Taylor, Kenneth Smith and Holston won the 4x400 meter relay in 3:14.24.
NSU men's coach Kenneth Giles won the MEAC Men's Most Outstanding Coach award for the seventh straight indoor season. Including six consecutive conference outdoor titles, the Spartans have won the last 13 MEAC track titles to be contested.
Holston and Nkrumah are in line to qualify for the NCAA National Indoor Track and Field Championships next month.
