Oct. 17, 2007

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - USC Upstate freshman women's cross country runner Emily Tangwar has put together an impressive 2007 season and now has the recognition to go with it. Tangwar, a native of Eldoret, Kenya, has been named the Atlantic Sun Conference Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week.

At the Furman Invitational held at the Furman University Golf Course on Oct. 13, Tangwar finished in fourth place out of 177 runners in the women's run with a time of 18:22 for her fifth top-10 finish in as many meets this season. Her performance bested all runners from A-Sun rivals North Florida and East Tennessee State as well as runners from Clemson, Furman, Miami and College of Charleston.

A nursing major, Tangwar's best finish of the season came on Sept. 29 when she won the women's 5k at The Citadel Invitational in Charleston, S.C. She will look to cap her season with a good finish on Oct. 27 at the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships in Nashville, Tenn.

Tangwar becomes the first cross country runner to win the weekly A-Sun honor and is the first female athlete at Upstate to garner player of the week status. Men's soccer players Troy Simon and Jason McCabe and men's golfer Josh Gallman earned conference player of the week honors earlier this season.