LEXINGTON, Va. – The Norfolk State men's track team displayed its depth on Saturday at the VMI Team Challenge, recording a total of 20 top-10 finishes across both track and field events.

The Spartans notched top-10s in every track event at the meet except for one, including four events with multiple athletes placing.

As usual NSU was strong in the distance events, with three athletes among the top 10. Anteneh Girma led the way with a third-place finish in a PR of 15:02.03. Lelei Too also PRed, finishing sixth in 15:07.64. Meshack Kipchirchir was 10^th in 15:17.03.

The Spartans also had three of the top five in the 60 hurdles and three of the top eight in the mile. In the hurdles, Byron Carson was runner-up in a PR of 8.14 seconds. Da'Jion Hilliard placed third in 8.31 after setting a PR of 8.30 in the prelims. Joseph Abiakam came in fifth in 8.53 seconds.

In the mile, freshman Je'Shawn Walker came in third with a PR of 4:24.06. Evans Cheruiyot placed fifth (4:26.18) and Kamil Jihad was eighth (4:34.34).

Jihad added a runner-up finish in the 800 to his day. He clocked a half-mile time of 1:55.60.

In the sprints, Trequan Barnes (21.74) and Keith Brown (21.75) placed third and fourth, respectively. Freshman Savien Hayes was third in the 60 meters and Kai Cole was eighth in the 400.

The 4x400 team of Hayes, Barnes, Brown and Cole capped NSU's day on the track with a second-place showing in 3:17.21, the Spartans' top time in that event this year.

The Spartans were paced in the field events by freshman thrower Azad Williams. He was second in the shot put thanks to a season-best toss of 48 feet, 4.75 inches. Williams also placed 10^th in the weight throw (44-2).

Elsewhere in the field events, senior Garth Warner was runner-up in the high jump with a clearance of 6-8.75. Kequan Henley finished ninth in the long jump and Azziah Russell was ninth in the pole vault.

The Spartans return to the track at the Penn State National next weekend.