Tangwar Takes Athlete Of The Week for Penn Relays Performance
4/29/2009 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
April 29, 2009
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - After qualifying for and competing in the esteemed Penn Relays for the second straight year, USC Upstate sophomore Emily Tangwar broke the school record in the 5,000-meter race to secure her fourth- career Athlete of the Week award and first-career honor in the outdoor season, the conference announced Wednesday.
Tangwar was one of a select group of Atlantic Sun athletes who qualified to compete in Philadelphia in the world's largest annual track and field meet among 15,000 other world-class athletes. The sophomore from El Doret, Kenya, led the Upstate women in the Olympic Development Women's 5k race with a 24th-place finish in 17:23.33, beating her career-best performance at the Raleigh Relays by a full second and defeating runners from Vanderbilt, Harvard and Dartmouth.
"We're very proud of Emily and all of her accomplishments," said Upstate's head track and field coach Jimmy Stephens. "When we brought Emily in, we knew she was special. She has done some amazing things for our program at Upstate. However, the ultimate goal is for her to compete well at conference and that's what we're preparing for over the next few weeks."
"Emily has been working very hard and is well-deserving of this award," said distance coach Ed Schlichter. "She had a solid performance at the Penn Relays and we're excited to expand the growth of our women's track program with this award, as the women enter their first ever championship for the outdoor season."
The Upstate track and field teams will travel to Durham, N.C. to compete in the Duke Twilight on Sunday, May 3, followed by the Clemson Orange & White Invitational on May 9, before conference championships on May 15-16.
