PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – Despite sending a small delegation of athletes to the prestigious Penn Relays last weekend, the NSU men's track team still earned five top-10 finishes at the most famous track meet in the United States.

Highlighting the weekend was a third-place finish from the sprint medley relay team in the championship of America section. The quartet of James Taylor, Sean Holston, Kenneth Smith and Vincent Brown battled cool conditions to post a time of 3 minutes, 22.54 seconds. That time trailed only winner Penn State (3:18.47) and runner-up Tennessee (3:21.41) in the 37-team field.

NSU also advanced two athletes past Friday's prelims and into the championship of America division of the 110 meter hurdles. Junior Keith Nkrumah finished fifth in a time of 13.89 seconds and Aramis Massenburg was seventh in 14.10. Nkrumah ran a time of 13.77 in the prelims, his second-best time of the year.

In other running events, senior Josef Tessema finished seventh in the college 5,000 meters in a time of 14:32.43. In field competition, junior John James placed fourth in the college high jump with a top height of 6 feet, 8.25 inches.

The Spartans now turn their sights to next week's MEAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which will be held May 3-5 at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, N.C. NSU is looking for its seventh consecutive MEAC outdoor title, which would finish off a seventh straight indoor-outdoor sweep of the conference championships.