Martha Bissah claims another gold medal as Spartan Women place 7th at MEAC Outdoor Meet
Freshman Martha Bissah's gold medal in the 800 meters and a silver-medal performance by sophomore Taejah Robertson in the 100-meter hurdles highlighted the final day of action for the Norfolk State women's track and field team at the MEAC Outdoor Championship on Saturday on the campus of North Carolina A&T.
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The N.C. A&T women won the outdoor championship with 155 points, 31 ahead of runner-up Hampton. The NSU women finished tied with Bethune-Cookman for seventh place. Both tallied 54 points.
The Spartans earned 49 of their 54 points on Saturday. They got their day off to a good start as junior Tasia Baxter placed fourth in the pole vault with a top height of 10 feet, 5.5 inches.
Bissah began her day with a runner-up finish in the 1,500 meters (4:37.30). She was caught down the back stretch by Maryland Eastern Shore's Jennaya Hield (4:36.37), but hung on for a silver medal. In the next women's final, Robertson established a new PR for the second day in a row in the 100m hurdles. After clocking a 13.67 in the prelims, Robertson easily topped that with a 13.48 on Saturday. She was just edged out for first place by N.C. A&T's Kayla White (13.40).
Roughly one hour after coming up just short in the 1,500, Bissah bounced back to complete a yearly sweep of the conference 800-meter titles. Her winning time Saturday was 2:09.98.
Tyrika Lee, Daphne Cobbs and Candice Higgins earned NSU's other individual points on the track on Saturday. Lee placed sixth in the 100m (11.78) and seventh in the 200m (24.39). Cobbs earned four points in her last conference outdoor meet by finishing fifth in the 400 hurdles in 1:02.68. Higgins, meanwhile, claimed eighth in the 5,000 (18:59.97).
The Spartans also fared well in the relays on Saturday. Robertson, Lee, Janay Fields and T'Nai Wells finished sixth in the 4x100 relay in 46.81 seconds. The 4x400 relay team of Bissah, Jada Key, Nickheila John and Chazmin Fullwood capped the meet by winning their section and placing fourth overall in the final race with a time of 3:46.31.
The Spartans will look to send multiple athletes to the NCAA East Preliminary Round later this month at the University of Kentucky. Accepted entries will be announced in the coming weeks.
