Sept. 29, 2007

CHARLESTON, S.C. - USC Upstate freshman women's cross country runner Emily Tangwar had come close in the first three meets of the season, but finally broke through Saturday morning, winning the women's 5k race at The Citadel Invitational at James Island County Park with a time of 18:14.38.

Tangwar won the race by four seconds over Furman's Brittany Johnson, who finished at 18:18.56, and ran the fastest time for an Upstate women's cross country runner since the program was restarted this season.

"(Emily's win) is definitely a big boost for her and our team," Upstate cross country coach Jimmy Stephens said. "She ran a really great race and it was a quality win for our program."

Tangwar had three top 10 finishes coming into today's meet, including a fourth place finish at the Charlotte Invitational Sept. 21.

"We figured that (Emily) had a shot at winning it and she ran a strategically better race than everyone else did," Stephens said.

The Upstate women's team finished fifth out of seven Division I teams. Junior Maria Ruvalcaba Trigueros was the Spartans second highest finisher followed by senior Jamie Young, sophomore Ameenah Sabree, and sophomore Michelle Ruggieri.

The Upstate men also finished fifth out of seven Division I teams and were paced by sophomore Matt Henderson, who finished 41st overall out of 141 runners in the 8k race with a time of 27:44.00. Junior Brent Durden was 62nd at 28:37.37 and freshman Conrad Goeringer was 75th at 28:58.25.

Freshman Drew Goode was 78th at a pace of 29:09.14. Freshman Chuck King finished out the scoring for Upstate followed by sophomore Tyler Adams and junior Kevin Brabham.

"The guys stepped it up today," Upstate assistant coach Ed Schlichter said. "I told them the night before that if we work together and run smart, we'll do well and they did that."

Schlichter also said that both teams showed more improvement and are continuing to prepare for the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships Oct. 28 in Nashville, Tenn.

"Everyone ran their best times of the season and that is a true testament to our teams," Schlichter said.

Upstate's next meet will be on Oct. 13 when it competes in the Furman Invitational in Greenville.