Track & Field 2k21: MEAC Championships

Cambrea Sturgis raced to wins in the 100 and 200 meters finals at the MEAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships on May 8, in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Sturgis led North Carolina A&T with three first place finishes, collecting another win in the 400-meters relay with teammates Delecia McDuffie, Kamaya Debose-Epps and Jonah Ross (43.75).

Sturgis won the 100 meters at 11.03, which was wind assisted at 3.1. The victory was dominant as runner-up Debose-Epps finished at 11.26. Norfolk State's Kiara Grant placed third at 11.32. Sturgis' time is currently the third fastest time in the NCAA, this season.

She is also the second female representing an HBCU to finish the 100 meters in 11.03 seconds or less.

In the 200 meters, Sturgis topped Debose-Epps (23.22) with a late surge, completing the race at 22.88. Howard's Jessika Gbai placed third at 23.53. Gbai was the only competitor in the 200 meters final that didn't attend either North Carolina A&T or Norfolk State.

In our MEAC preview, it was said that if Norfolk State senior Martha Bissah didn't win the 800 and 1,500 meters races that it would be the biggest upsets of the meet. Both of those situations became reality. Bissah (2:09.62) dominated the 800 prelim as the only runner that finished the race under 2:10. Since 2017, no other runner has won the MEAC 800 meters in either the indoor or outdoor seasons until last weekend. Bissah led most of the race until about the final 25 meters when North Carolina A&T freshman Carolyn Brown surpassed Bissah. Just when it looked like Brown was going to pull off the upset, her senior teammate G'Jasmyn Butler (2:08.36) stole the victory at the finish line, sneaking past Brown (2:08.42). Also beating out Bissah was North Carolina A&T's Ayoola Gbolade (2:08.75) who slipped past the former champ to get the third place medal.

Bissah (4:30.5) placed second in the 1,500 meters after being edged out by Howard senior Destiny Stanford (4:27.2). Butler (4:35) was third in that event. After placing second as a freshman in 2017, Bissah was the winner of the 2018 and 2019 1,500 meters MEAC outdoor finals. There was no 2020 outdoor meet due the the COVID-19 pandemic, which cancelled the entire NCAA outdoor season.

North Carolina A&T senior Madeleine Akobundu repeated as the MEAC long jump champion, May 7. Unlike her first win in 2019, it was such a dominant win that she didn't even take her final three jumps. Akobundu won at 6.00, which she jumped on her first two tries before hitting a mark of 5.87 in her third and last attempt.

Going into the final three jumps, the closest competitor was Howard's Ja'Tae Joyner, at 5.76. Akobundu who had a 100-meter hurdles prelim to prepare for, moved on from the competition as the rest of the jumpers battled for the second and third place medals. Joyner's mark of 5.76 held on to the runner-up spot and Morgan State's Tia Jackson's fourth jump, which measured at 5.68, gave her a third place finish.

In the 100-meter hurdles, North Carolina A&T was predicted to have the top three finishers for the third straight time at the MEAC championships. The trio of Akobundu, TeJyrica Robinson and Paula Salmon placed one, two and three in 2019. This year Robinson was the winner at 12.90, which is the 11th best time in the NCAA for the season. Salmon was the runner-up at 13.10 and Akobundu placed third at 13.15.

Salmon came close to winning the high jump with a personal best jump of 1.76, but her teammate Kenady Wilson won by making her final jump at 1.79, which was also a personal record.