Spartan Echo

Section: Sports

NORFOLK, Va. - Norfolk State men's track and field coach Kenneth Giles announced Friday the addition of 11 athletes to his program, which has won the last three MEAC indoor and outdoor titles.

Giles signed an array of accomplished sprinters, hurdles, middle distance specialists and throwers who he feels will help NSU remain among the top track programs on the East Coast. The recruiting class includes two national champions and five state champions.

Leading the list of sprinters to join the Spartans is Sean Holston (Fairfax, Va./Robert E. Lee HS). Holston, a 2007 high school graduate who originally signed with Florida State, has enrolled at NSU and plans to join the track team this season. He won the 200 and 400 meters at the 2007 Nike Indoor National Championships. Holston clocked a meet-record time of 47.12 seconds in the 400, the seventh-fastest time ever run by a U.S. high school athlete. He went on to run a PR of 46.47 outdoors last year at the Southern Track Classic.

Holston, the 2007 Virginia (VHSL) outdoor champion in the 200 and 400, has also run personal-best times of 21.07 in the 200 and 10.59 in the 100.

"Sean could be the next Chris Brown for us," Giles said, referring to the NSU All-American and current Olympian for the Bahamas. "Simply put, Sean is one of the top recruits we've ever had here."

Other sprinters who will suit up for NSU next season are Darryl Brickhouse (Suffolk, Va./Nansemond River HS), Keith Nkrumah (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood HS), Thomas Speller (Chesapeake, Va./Indian River HS) and Quentin Walker (Hampton, Va./Hampton HS). Brickhouse has run a PR of 48.71 in the 400 meters and ran the lead-off leg on the Warriors' state championship 400-meter relay team this outdoor season.

Nkrumah won the New York state outdoor championship in the 200 meters and has run top times of 10.62 in the 100 meters and 21.30 in the 200.

Speller, who signed with NSU last season but sat out, finished second behind Holston in the 200 meters at the 2007 Nike Indoor Nationals (21.98). He was also second in the Eastern Region in the 200 meters outdoors last season, and came in fourth at the state indoor meet in the 300 as a senior. He has run top times of 10.89 in the 100, 21.55 in the 200, 34.83 in the 300 and 48.46 in the 400.

Walker placed second at the Peninsula District meet in the 100 and has run a PR of 10.87. Walker also won the district indoor championship in the 55 meters as a senior and has a PR of 6.46 in that event.

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