Men's Track & Field

Norfolk State Decade in Review: Men’s Track and Field

Courtesy of Norfolk State Athletic Communications


NORFOLK, Va. – When the spring sports season was shut down, it marked the end of a decade of Norfolk State athletics. From the fall of 2010 to the spring of 2020, it was a 10-year stretch that saw countless highlights across NSU's 15 total sports. Many of those programs' greatest achievements – since NSU made the jump to NCAA Division I in 1997 – came during this decade.
 
This week, we are going to finish spotlighting those storylines right here on NSUSpartans.com. Each week during this series, we chose a different sport(s) and took you down memory lane before the start a new decade of excellence. In addition, fans could head to our Twitter page (@NSUSpartans) where they had the opportunity to vote for what they thought is the greatest highlight per sport. Beginning next week, they will be able to vote for the greatest overall highlight in NSU athletics during the past 10 years.
 
As we conclude our series, we will take a look at men's track and field, a program that historically has been the most successful for NSU during its D-I days. We've narrowed it down to five storylines from the past decade that we'll focus on, in no particular order.
 
A.) NSU had a lot of individual success in men's track & field during the decade. So much so that narrowing down a top 5 highlights leaves out several individual accomplishments. But one runner who would be tough to leave out is sprinter James Taylor. As a sophomore in 2011-12, he won the 60-meter indoor title and the 200-meter outdoor title at the MEAC Championships. Then as a junior in 2012-13, he earned second-team All-America honors in the 200 at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. He placed 10th at the national indoor meet and 13th at the outdoor meet. He was one of three track and field athletes to advance to the NCAA Championships twice during the decade. The second we will highlight below, and honorable mention top five goes to Keith Nkrumah, who placed 11th at the 2013 national outdoor meet in the 110 hurdles and competed at the same event the year before. But only Taylor won second-team All-America honors or better twice during the decade.
Read more about Taylor: 2013 NCAA Indoor Championships | 2013 NCAA Outdoor Championships
 
B.) He was a two-time outdoor All-American in the early 2000s, but Chris Brown did even more aside from his collegiate career. He competed for his native Bahamas in the 400 and the 4x400 relay beginning in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. After competing in 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing, he repeated his effort at the 2012 games in London. There, he placed fourth in the 400 meters, replicating his performance at the 2008 games. He also led the Bahamas to the Gold medal in the 4x400 in 2012. He was part of the Bahamas relay team at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro that won the bronze as well. Altogether, Brown ranks as one of NSU's most accomplished professional athletes among all sports, not just track and field. The fact that he qualified for five Olympics, including twice during this past decade, puts him in an elite category.
Read more about Brown: 2012 Olympics | 2016 Olympics
 
C.) A lot will be made of individual accomplishments, but NSU started off the decade by continuing its team success. The men's track and field program won the 2011 and '12 MEAC Outdoor Championships, as well as the 2011, '12 and '13 indoor titles. When the program held up that 2012 outdoor trophy, it marked the seventh straight year the Spartans swept the indoor and outdoor MEAC championships, dating back to the 2005-06 academic year. The 2013 indoor title marked the eighth straight for the program, although the sweep streak ended later in the year when NSU placed second at the outdoor meet. Nevertheless, no other MEAC program has ever won more than five straight outdoor titles, four straight indoor ones, or swept both for more than three years in a row. NSU's dominance for such a long period of time has been one of the most remarkable accomplishments for the athletics department since moving to D-I.
Read more about NSU's Championships: 2012 MEAC Outdoor | 2013 MEAC Indoor
 
D.) Along with Taylor and Nkrumah, Sean Holston also qualified twice for the NCAA Championships during the decade, three times total during his career. Holston won eight individual MEAC titles altogether, sweeping the 200 and the 400 meters at the 2010, '11 and '12 indoor championships. He also won the 400 at the 2011 and '12 outdoor championships. And he excelled in both at the national level too. He qualified for the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championships in the 200 and the 2011 outdoor meet in the 400. Then he made his mark at the 2012 indoor championships. He placed sixth there in the 200, the highest national indoor finish ever at the D-I level for a Spartan athlete. It still ranks as the highest finish, either indoor or outdoor, since Desmond Kapofu placed sixth in the triple jump at the outdoor meet in 2003. Aramis Massenburg and Darris Shelton (2011 outdoor) and Trequan Barnes (2019 indoor) also competed at NCAA Championships during the decade along with Taylor and Nkrumah, but only Holston earned first-team All-America honors.
Read more about Holston finishing sixth at the 2012 NCAA Indoor Championships
 
E.) Between 2011 and 2013, NSU won four Most Outstanding Runner awards at the MEAC Championships. Of course, Spartan athletes won numerous individual titles during the decade. But one athlete stands out in terms of individual MEAC titles. Jacob Milton began his career in 2016-17, and as a freshman he won the high jump title at both the indoor and outdoor championships. He then repeated that feat as a sophomore and junior, and he won the indoor high jump title his senior year in 2019-20 as well. COVID-19 shut down the spring season back in March, and as a result Milton was unable to make it a perfect 8-of-8 with this year's outdoor championship cancelled. Still, for an athlete to sweep an event for four straight years at a conference championship meet, either indoor or outdoor, is highly unheard of nationally. For an athlete to sweep an event at BOTH the indoor and outdoor conference championships is even rarer. Milton proved, however, that it can be done.
Read more about Milton's career at NSU.
 
Those are but a few of the highlights from men's track & field this decade. Be sure to check our Twitter @NSUSpartans to vote for your favorite storyline. Next week, fans will be able to begin voting for their favorite overall storyline of the decade among the top ones for each sport.