Sept. 11, 2002

Macon, Ga. - Florida Atlantic University's Raynell Hagberg, after two strong performances, earned this week's Atlantic Sun Cross Country Runner-of-the-Week award the conference office announced today. The award is the first in the cross-country program's history.

Hagberg, a freshman from Stuart, Fla., opened the season by finishing second in the Palm Beach Atlantic Invitational with a time of 20:06. She followed up that stellar performance by finishing seventh out of 119 runners at the 5k UCF Invitational with a time of 19:10.

"This feels great," said Hagberg, who was speechless and overjoyed with the honors. "I'm very happy with my performance and I know I'm going to do a lot better."

Coming into the season though there were question marks if Hagberg could step up and be the number one runner, though now she has quickly silenced those critics.

For a long time FAU's cross-country program has been overlooked by other teams in the conference. With this honor, other schools will hopefully begin to take notice.

"This definitely legitimizes the program," said Head Coach Alex Smolka. "I hope this spells a new beginning to our program."

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