Oct. 8, 2002

Macon, Ga. - Florida Atlantic University's Raynell Hagberg was awarded her third Runner-of-the-Week award as announced by the Atlantic Sun conference office today. Hagberg has now won the award three out of the last five weeks.

Hagberg placed 20th out of 214 runners in the 6k Florida Gator Invitational as her time of 22:35.17 is the best in the conference for a 6k race. Hagberg led the Lady Owls to an eighth place finish, just ahead of Florida State, FIU and Miami as well as conference opponents Jacksonville and Stetson.

"We are slowly begining to come down from our most intense part of the season and it has taken her a little bit of time to get used to the mileage, get used to the hard work and get healthy from the past semester, but I definitely think she is getting stronger by each week," said head coach Alex Smolka.

"This is excellent for the program but any time you have success it puts pressure on the program to continue the success. But, it is really nice to bask in this glory."

FAU takes this week off but returns to action Friday, October 18th at the Stetson Invitational in DeLand, FL.