Sept. 20, 2007

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The USC Upstate Men's and Women's Cross Country teams are set to head to Charlotte for the Charlotte Invite presented by Puma.

"We look forward to going to Charlotte and seeing some great competition," said Head Coach Jimmy Stephens.

The meet is hosted by Charlotte and is the 49ers first home contest on the campus of UNC Charlotte in almost 30 years. Freshman Emily Tangwar (Eldoret, Kenya) looks to improve upon time and place as she has posted top-10 finishes in the Spartans' first two meets of the season. Currently, Tangwar boasts the second-best time in the Atlantic Sun Conference, a mere .07 seconds behind North Florida's Amanda Davey.

"Emily(Tangwar) is running extremely well right now, she's been improving greatly in workouts every week, and I think she'll give Charlotte's squad (a perennial Atlantic 10 powerhouse) a good run tomorrow," said assistant cross country coach Ed Schlichter.

In-state rival USC will also be attending the meet. Three weeks ago, Tangwar beat the entire Gamecock team on their home turf in Columbia. Sophomore Maria Ruvalcaba (Charleston, SC) will also look to drop more time as she has consistently gotten faster every week.

"Maria has been doing an outstanding job helping lead the team," added Schlichter. ""While being a great motivation for the underclassmen, she has also been the Spartans number two runner all season."

Other runners looking to contribute are 5th-year senior Jamie Young (Hurricane, WV) and the freshmen duo Kiah White(Orlando, FL) and Ameenah Sabree(Anderson, SC).

"The women will have to continue to close the gap between our No. 1 and No. 5 runners for us to be competitive as a team at the Atlantic Sun Championships. From what I see in practice, I'm confident they'll get it done," Schlichter said.

On the men's side, the Spartans will look to freshmen Matt Henderson (Spartanburg, SC) and Conrad Goeringer (Mount Holly, PA) to lead the team to their highest finish of the season.

"Matt and Conrad continue to make me proud, watching them improve from workout to workout has been such a great experience for myself and for the team," Schlichter stated.

Not far from the leaders is junior Brent Durden (North Augusta, SC). "Brent has been exceeding my expectations and has reached a new level in his fitness and training. He's looking to do big things this season," Schlichter said.

Drew Goode (Rock Hill, SC), Kevin Brabham (Greer, SC), and Charles King (James Island, SC) will add to the depth of the Spartans as they will be the deciding factor when the team scores are tallied up.

"We're going to surprise some people as these guys have been working really well with each other to push themselves to their fullest potential," Schlichter said.

"We are very proud of how everyone is working and improving weekly. We still have a long way to go, but we are making great strides toward building the Upstate Cross Country program," Stephens said.

The meet is set for Friday evening, kicking off with the women's 5k race scheduled for 6:20 p.m. The men's 8k race will follow at 7:00 p.m. Results will be posted on www.flashresults.com