Martha Bissah excels at 5,000m cross-country meet

After she crossed the finish line Saturday, Norfolk State's Martha Bissah waited. For 22 seconds.

That's how fast the sophomore from Ghana was. She won the MEAC cross country meet in record time, finishing the 5,000-meter race at Delaware State in 17 minutes, 16.3 seconds. Hampton's Faith Keitany was second in 17:38.6.

Bissah's fast finish helped the Spartans to third place with 99 points, their best showing since 2010. Florida A&M won with 46 points, ahead of Hampton (63).

Bissah is Norfolk State's first female champion since Agatha Gitundu in 2001. Three Spartans joined her in the top 15 to earn all-MEAC honors: Candice Higgins (fifth), Ashah Koech (ninth) and Caroline Samoei (15th).

Before NSU: Won a gold medal in the Girls 800m race at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in a time of 2 minutes, 4.9 seconds … That marked the first track and field gold medal by a Ghanaian in any international Olympic event.

Personal: Full name is Martha Bissah … Born on Aug. 24, 1997 … Daughter of Kwame Adu and Afia Ampoamah … Has one brother, Kwame Binpong … Majoring in business management.