Friday, September 30, 2011

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Senior Joan Tangwar of the USC Upstate women's cross country team took top honors tonight at the Charlotte Invitational, while the Upstate men's team finished sixth amongst tough competition.

Tangwar won her second race of the season, posting a Spartan record with a time of 16:53.7 in the women's 5K and beating 289 other competitors. She was followed by fellow seniors Jemeli Sang in fifth-place and Caroline Chelulei in eighth with times of 17:13.5 and 17:30.2, respectively. Sang and Chelulei also set personal records tonight. The trio helped the women's squad to an 11th-place finish out of 36 six teams.

"It was great to have three women finish in the top eight against such tough competition," said Upstate's interim-head cross country coach Carson Blackwelder. "I was glad to see the women's team be so aggressive today. We keep improving as a whole and the team is in great shape. We keep looking toward the conference meet; that's the goal."