NORFOLK, Va. - The Norfolk State University cross country teams will compete at the 2019 MEAC Championships this Saturday in Smyrna, Delaware.
The Spartan men have won a conference-record 12 cross country titles and will be searching for their second in the last three years on Saturday. Their most recent title was in 2017. Last season, the NSU men placed fifth.
The Spartans own the MEAC's top two 8,000-meter times this year. Sophomore
Meshack Kipchirchir clocked a time of 24 minutes, 51 seconds, and
Evans Cheruiyot posted a 25:01, both at the Panorama Farms Invitational in September. Sophomore
Lelei Too has also run under 26 minutes this year, while seniors
Anteneh Girma and
Festus Bett and sophomore
Kamil Jihad have earned a total of five All-MEAC honors in their careers.
The Spartan women placed second, just one point out of championship position behind Florida A&M last year. NSU last won a MEAC women's cross country title in 2011.
NSU will again be paced by senior
Martha Bissah, who has won the last two MEAC individual cross country championships. She has run a season-best 5K time of 17:52.9 at the Cavalier Classic in September, and is coming off a personal-record 6K time of 20:47 at last week's ECU Pirate Invitational. Both times are the fastest among MEAC women this fall.
Sophomore
Fridah Koech, who was fourth at last year's MEAC meet and earned all-conference honors, will again look to be among the lead pack. Seniors
Caroline Samoei and Kelly Jerop and freshman
Kara Grant have also run well in recent meets.
The women's 5K race begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, and the men's 8K race gets underway at noon.
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