Final Results

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Norfolk State men's track and field team's streak of seven consecutive outdoor titles came to an end on Saturday as the Spartans finished second after the final day of competition at North Carolina A&T.

Hampton won the title with 119 points, while the Spartans were runners-up with 92.5. Hampton became the first team other than NSU to win a MEAC men's outdoor track and field championship since Florida A&M in 2005.

The day started off strong for NSU. Freshman Willard Ward cleared a season-high 13 feet, 10 inches to take third in the pole vault. On the track, the Spartans won the first event, the 4x100 meter relay. The team of James Taylor, Damian Smith, Keith Nkrumah and Damian Smith clocked a time of 40.81 seconds to lead the field.

Nathnael Meseret took second place in the next event, the 1,500 meters, in a time of 3 minutes, 59.06 seconds. Nkrumah kept the Spartans' momentum going in the ensuing race, defending his 2012 outdoor title in the 110 meter hurdles. He clocked a time of 13.68 seconds, his second-best effort of the season.

Kenneth Smith also put up a third-place finish with a PR of 10.48 seconds in the 100 meters. But the Spartans struggled in two of their normally strong events, the 200 and 400 meters. NSU amassed just seven points in those events combined, with Smith and Taylor taking fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 400. Smith pulled up with a hamstring injury in the 200 finals Saturday and Taylor false started in the 200 prelims on Thursday.

Hampton slowly picked up ground in the 200 and 400, plus two of their strong events where NSU didn't have any entries, the 800 and javelin, and eventually overtook the Spartans.

The Pirates clinched it in the 3,000 meter steeplechase. HU's Kemal Jarso and Xavier Fraction took fourth and sixth, respectively, while NSU's Damtew Adnew and Kipchirchir Kiptoo were fifth and eighth. That helped the Pirates put three more points between themselves and NSU, increasing Hampton's lead to 16.5 points and making the 4x400 meter relay a formality.

“We left a lot of points on the track today,” NSU head coach Kenneth Giles said. “This one will hurt for a while, but we'll be back.”

Several Spartans rank highly in the latest NCAA East Preliminary rankings and should be in line for postseason berths later this month, led by Taylor in the 200 and 400 and Nkrumah in the 110 hurdles.