Archdeacon: UD’s Simone Bessong represents Cameroon at World Championships | Sports

She keeps soaring over the bar, even though her parents set it very high.

Simone Bessong’s dad, David, was a professional soccer player both in his native Cameroon and in Holland.

Her mom, Sonya, is in the Hall of Fame at Dickinson College, an NCAA Division III school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where she was the cocaptain and record-setting goalie of the field hockey team and a standout on the softball and basketball teams.

Later her mom also played rugby for the U.S. national team, Bessong said

“So sports was mandatory when I was growing up,” she said with a laugh Monday night from Eugene, Oregon where she was preparing for one of her own highlight moments.

Already a track standout at the University of Dayton — where she was named the Atlantic 10’s Most Outstanding Rookie as a freshman last season — she is representing Cameroon at the World Athletic U-20 Championships this week at Hayward Field.

She runs the 100 meters Wednesday, Aug. 5, and Friday she competes in the 200.

Last month she won the 100-meter dash at the Cameroon National Championships in the capital city of Yaoundé. After overcoming a bad start, she came from behind and clinched victory with a 11.87 finish.

She ran faster than that at the A-10 Championships, where she finished third, clocking an 11.73.

That was part of a herculean four-medal effort that included silver in the 200 and the 100 relay and she teamed with Mariya Washington, Sydney Workman and Grace Felts to win the 1,600 relay.

That not only got her the rookie of the year honor, but it led UD to its first ever A-10 Track and Field Championship.

She was nearly as dominate in the Flyers’ indoor season, winning three medals — second in the 200 and third in the 60 and the 1,600 meter relay — and making the All-Rookie Team.

When she ran a 24.04 in the 200 meters at the Tennessee Invite, she bettered the 200-meter qualifying mark for the World Athletic U-20 Championships.

Flyers’ coach Aaron Gordon, knowing she was half Cameroonian, contacted track representatives of the Central African nation and informed them about her.

“They were glad to have me join them,” Simone said.

She then made the U-20 qualifying mark for the 100 meters at the A-10 Championships.

‘The party was still going’Although she grew up in Florence, Kentucky — home of the well-known red and white-striped “Florence Y’All” water tower — she said she embraced her Cameroonian heritage and culture.

She said her dad and mom, who was born in Philadelphia, as well as her brother and sister can all make Cameroonian food.

Before going to Cameroon to compete in July, she said she’d only been to the country once, when she was 6 years old.

On that visit, she said her relatives in Cameroon threw a big wedding party for her dad and mom, who had been married years earlier in the United States.

She equaled that celebratory embrace when she ran the 100 at the National Championships. She said several members of her dad’s family made the four-hour bus trip from Douala to the stadium in Yaoundé for the chance to watch her run in person for the very first time.

After her rousing victory, the family threw an impromptu party for her. Because the date for the 200 was changed at the last minute, she said she had to miss the race because she’d already paid for an earlier flight home.

“When my mom and I left to go home, the party was still going,” she said with a laugh.

She said while it might not have as big as that 2006 celebration — “that one was pre-planned” — it was “pretty good.”

‘Everything I want right here’

Although she started her high school career at Randall K. Cooper High in Union, Kentucky, she spent her last season at Tatnall, a college prep school in Wilmington, Delaware.

She planned to go to an engineering college and said she looked at the academic side of schools before considering the track programs.

“UD wasn’t on my top list, but then I learned the school had an engineering program that was awesome,” she said, “And I saw the girls on the track team were doing pretty well also.

“I reached out to the coach and when I came to visit, I loved the school, loved the engineering program (she’s a chemical engineering major) and I loved the people I met.

“I liked everything UD had to offer. I still do.”

In recent years athletes in some sports, especially basketball, often enter the transfer portal after having a standout season in hopes of moving to a bigger program that offers more exposure and more NIL money.

While transferring schools isn’t as prevalent in track, it has happened. Two summers ago, Arianna Lofton, the Central State high jumper who won two straight SIAC outdoor titles and three indoor crowns, left the HBCU for Purdue.

Simone said she wasn’t interested in that.

“I didn’t want to leave,” she said. “Academics are important to me and I’m at a great engineering school.

“I didn’t feel I needed to go to a bigger SEC school or a Big 10 school because I’ve got opportunities to do everything I want right here.”

Already recognized as one of the A-10’s top performers, she’s now competing on the international stage in Eugene. And she has her sights set on the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

“Cameroon is looking to put together a (1,600 relay team) for those Games and I’m going to try to make it,” she said. “That would be a really big opportunity.”

It likely would kick off a family celebration back in Cameroon like no other.

And once again she would show she’s able to clear that very high bar her parents have set.