Southern States Athletic Conference

November 4, 2006

Clinton, Miss. ...The Berry men's and women's teams won the Region XIII Championship meet to earn a trip to the NAIA National Championship meet. David Kawa took home the individual title in the men's race. Since the race also served as the Southern States Athletic Conference Championship, Kawa and the Vikings are also the SSAC Champs. Leah Deringer will also get a shot to race at the National meet as an individual.

Kawa won the men's race in a time of 25:37 to finish more than a minute ahead of second place finisher Matt Cagagle from Loyola who came in second in a time of 26:46.Shorter's Jarrod Godsave finished third with a time of 26:51. Kawa led the Berry team which finished with 22 points, to finish 29 points better than local rival Shorter which was second with a score of 51. Spring Hill was third on the men's side with a score of 103.

On the women's side, the Vikings were led by second-place finisher Haley Burke. The former Berry women's soccer player, finished in a time of 19:32. She trailed only Leah Deringer of Lee who had a time of 18:48 to win the race. The Vikings won with 37 points, to finish 27 points ahead of second place Lee which had 64 points. Reinhadt was third with 88 points. Shorter was fifth with 144 points. Berry's top runner this season Nicole Degner, who ran 17:53 at the Georgia State meet, did not run in the race.

On the women's side, Burke finished just ahead of teammate Becky Ament who crossed in a time of 19:34 to earn third place in the race. The top seven at the race earn first team All-Region XIII honors and Ashley Andereck was the third Viking woman to earn that distinction with a 20:03 finish that put her in at seventh place.

Lynn Roney finished 11th with a time of 20:41. She and teammate Ashlea Hutchins, who finished 14th in a time of 20:49, both made the second team. All of Berry's runners were in the top 20 for the race, with Eva Gordon rounding out the group in 20th with a 21:26 time.

The Berry men had practiced pack running all season and continued to do so in the region meet. Outside of Kawa, the Berry pack finished 6-through-10 in the race. The split between the first pack runner and the last was exactly 1:05. Ryan McClay finished in a time of 26:58 to take sixth and Chris Rodriguez finished in 27:12 to finish seventh and earn  first team All-Region spots.

Berry's Matt Scott crossed in a time of 27:19 for eighth place. Adam Newton and Chris Mayer finished within one second of each other, as Newton crossed at 27:32 in ninth followed by 10th place Mayer at 27:33. Brady Bennett also earned second team All-Region honors with a 15th place finish in a time of 28:03.

The race also served as the Southern States Athletics Conference Championship meet. The Vikings win that title as well. Likewise the Vikings that earned first team All-Region honors also get first team All-SSAC honors. As a result Eva Gordon earns a spot on the SSAC second team. Similarly, Matt Scott and Adam Newton moved on to the SSAC first team.

The Vikings now advance to the National Championship meet. The race will be held Nov. 18 at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. For more information on the championship meet click the following link: NAIA National Championship Race.

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