Oct. 27, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - USC Upstate women's cross country runner Emily Tangwar capped off an impressive season in near-perfect fashion by finishing second out of 86 runners in women's 5k race with a time of 18:08 at the Atlantic Sun Championships held at the Vaughn's Creek Course Saturday morning.

Tangwar was edged out by Belmont senior Lauren Weaver, who won the race at a time of 17:81 and was named A-Sun Player of the Year. Belmont was also the top team finisher at the meet.

For her efforts, Tangwar was named the A-Sun Freshman of the Year as well as All-Conference and All-Freshman. She did not finish out of the top-five in six meets this season.

"(Emily) had a great race and ran a personal record," USC Upstate cross country head coach Jimmy Stephens said. "She held onto the pace set by (Weaver) and ran the race that she was supposed to run."

Junior Susana Hernandez was the second highest finisher for the women followed by sophomore Maria Ruvalcaba Trigueros, senior Jamie Young, junior Maria Herrera, freshman Kiah White and freshman Ameenah Sabree.

"We had a strong showing by the girls and the guys today," USC Upstate assistant coach Ed Schlichter said. "This was a good experience for our young teams and it was just a great effort by both of them."

In the men's 8k run, freshman Matt Henderson paced the Spartans once again by finishing 41st out of 92 runners at a time of 27:53 followed by a 65th place finish by junior Brent Durden at 29:12 and freshman Conrad Goeringer was 69th at 30:14.

Freshman Drew Goode was the fourth highest finisher for Upstate followed by freshman Chuck King, freshman Joe Edwards, junior Kevin Brabham, freshman Tyler Adams and freshman Adam Brownlee.

Upstate finished 10th in the team standings as Belmont took the men's team title. Belmont's Kipkosgei Magut was the winner of the men's 8k with a time of 25:10 and was named A-Sun Player of the Year.

"I'm extremely proud of the men. We were still a little banged up and they did the best they could," Stephens said. "Beating two teams in the conference meet is very big for us."

With the cross country program completing its first season since 2003, Stephens and Schlichter are happy with the way things are heading with both programs.

"I'm very proud of our teams. We beat some teams first-year programs aren't supposed to beat and we put people and athletes in positions they've never been in before and they stepped up," Stephens said.

"We're looking very hungry for next year," Schlichter said.

2007 A-Sun Championships - Women's Team Results in PDF Format
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2007 A-Sun Championships - Women's Individual Results in PDF Format
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2007 A-Sun Championships - Men's Team Results in PDF Format
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2007 A-Sun Championships - Men's Individual Results in PDF Format
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