Saturday, October 15, 2011

Spartanburg, S.C. - Led by a pair of dominant performances by Gilbert Kemboi and Joan Tangwar, the USC Upstate men's and women's cross country teams swept the races at the Upstate Invitational Saturday morning at Milliken Research Park.

Upstate used the races as a tune-up for the A-Sun Championships in two weeks in Nashville, Tenn., and did so in strong fashion. Both teams had the top five runners that counted in the team scores in each race to give the Spartans 15 points to run away with the team titles. Kemboi (Eldoret, Kenya) dominated the field and covered the 8k distance in a time of 25:33 to win the race by 1:02 over Daniel Smoak, who ran unattached. Tangwar (Eldoret, Kenya) also turned in a dominant performance, finishing the 5k race in 17:32 to finish eight seconds ahead of teammate and second-place finisher Jemeli Sang (Eldoret, Kenya).

In the women's race, Tangwar set the tone for the Spartans with her race win as Upstate sprinted off the line and took control of the race. Tangwar's win was her third of the season and gave the Spartans a sweep of individual titles this year with Jemeli Sang winning at Clemson. Tangwar, Sang and Carolyne Chelulei (Eldoret, Kenya) were never pressed in the race and came home with the top three positions. Sang ran in a time of 17:40, while Chelulei came in with her second-fastest time of the season with an effort of 18:00.

Jasmine Polite (Goose Creek, S.C.) finished fourth among the scores that counted for the team scores and fifth overall with a time of 20:02. It marked her second-fastest time of the season as well. Laura Transue was the fifth-fastest finisher for Upstate and the seventh overall after turning in a time of 20:41, her fastest time of the season, to give the Spartans the top five finishers for the team scores in the race.