ROME, Ga. -- The Berry women's cross country team advanced to the NAIA National Tournament by winning the Southern States Athletic Conference Championship Meet Sat. morning at Stonebridge Golf Club. Paul Deaton was named SSAC Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year. Justyna Mudy of Shorter was the individual meet champion and the SSAC Runner of the Year.
The Berry women finished with 40 points to edge out Shorter by three points in a race that was close all-around. Lee was third on the women's side with 47 points. On the men's side Shorter won with a perfect score of 15, while Lee was second with 51 points and Berry had 61.
Mudy finished in a blistering time of 17:22 for the five-kilometer race. She will advance to nationals as one of five runners not associated with the Berry team that earn individual qualification. Other individual qualifiers include Lee's Erin Wasserfall and Maggie Opelt. The Lee duo finished third and fourth respectively. Wasserfall crossed in a time of 18:52, while Opelt was in at 19:03.
Berry's Courtney Cooper finished second in the 5K race with a time of 18:45 to lead the Berry women's team. However, it wasn't a single individual effort that won things for the Berry team, it was group finishing that helped the Lady Vikings score enough points to beat out the competition.
Berry put nine runners in the top-20 of the race including pack of runners that took places 8-12 in the race. Sarah Foreman and Lynn Roney crossed almost simultaneously in eighth and ninth place respectively. Foreman crossed in 19:52.59, while Roney, a senior, crossed in 19:52.91.
Anna Sons was 10th with a time of 20:00, while Jenn Cook rounded out the top five for the Berry team with an 11th place finish in 20:07, which put her ahead of the fourth runner on every other team in the race. Sarah Walcott was 12th in a time of 20:08 to conclude the big group of Berry runners.
The Lady Vikings continued to pile up high finishing positions as Alex Whitaker-Lea crossed in 14th place in a time of 20:14. Senior Haley Burke was 17th in a time of 20:39. Casey Norris from Berry was 20th in a time of 20:51.
On the strength of the win Berry will advance to the NAIA Nationals on Sat., Nov. 22 at the Dr. Wayne E. Dannehl Cross Country Course in Kenosha, Wisc. With her second-place finish Cooper earned a spot on the SSAC All-Conference Team and Paul Deaton was named SSAC Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year.
Sarah Massey and Kaitlin Shaw, both from Shorter, finished fifth and sixth respectively. Massey finished in 19:41, while Shaw made it in 19:45 and both earned individual qualification. Joy Hrushka finished seventh in a time of 19:50 to earn a spot on the SSAC All-Conference team.
For the Berry women Lauren Hicks (20:58) was 24th, while Alyssa O'Dell (21:02) was 25th. Ellery Nash (21:32) came in 30th. Mary Katherine Franklin (21:53) finished 33rd, while Jacque Smith (22:03) was 34th. Seniors Lindsay Hixson (22:19) and Ashlea Hutchins (22:25) finished 36th and 37th respectively.
The final race of the cross country season is the NAIA National Championship meet on Sat., Nov. 22 in Kenosha, Wisc. The Berry women will run in the 5K race at 10:30 a.m., followed by the men's 8K race at 11:45 a.m.
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