Marie Collop, Campus Carrier Assistant Sports Editor

Berry hosted on of eight NCAA division III cross country regionals on Saturday, Nov. 15. Berry hosted the southeast regional, which showcased schools from 12 different states, ranging all the way from Texas to Virginia.

After the southeast regional last year, a panel of coaches from the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association suggests which site the regionals should be held at the next year. Once this site is decided, this bid is proposed to an NCAA committee, who approves or rejects the site based on certain characteristics. These characteristics usually have to do with the logistics, like hotel and food accommodations, organization of the college and the race track components.

Bryanna Perry, Staff Photojournalist Junior Kyle Harris passes a competitor during the regional cross country race held at Berry on Nov. 22.

The first two teams to finish for both men’s and women’s move onto the national championship, which is held in Mason, Oh. on Nov. 22. Along with 16 teams that receive an automatic bid to the championships, there are 16 teams that receive an at-large bid. In addition to the 32 teams participating in the national championships, 56 individuals, the first seven athletes from each region who are not a part of a qualifying team, are selected to participate in the championship.

In total, between the men’s and women’s, there were over 350 runners and 29 different teams. Of the women’s teams, Emory University and Christopher Newport University finished first and second respectively. Of the men’s teams, Emory and Bridgewater (Va.) finished first and second, respectively.

Going into the race, both Berry men’s and women’s teams set a goal of both finishing in the top ten. Both teams exceeded their expectations, finishing eighth and ninth, respectively. Berry did not have any runners finish in the top seven, but had one runner, sophomore Danielle Ferro, finish 12th, placing her on the all-region team.

Paul Deaton, the head coach for both the men’s and women’s teams, said that in order to meet the team goals for the regional race, the teams would have to run particularly well.

“We felt like (the goal for the men’s team) was doable, but the region has good parody, so we knew we would have to run our best race to meet it. For the girls, we felt like it was in reach, but we knew we would have to run better than ever before to meet (the goal),” Deaton said.

Both the men’s and women’s teams had a significant amount of runners establish a new personal record (PR). On the women’s team, well over half of the runners established a new PR. Deaton said both teams were very excited when they met their goals.

Sophomores Matthew Walker and Danielle Ferro, who led the men’s and women’s teams respectively, said they were happy with the team’s efforts.

“Looking at the results, the eighth place was about 60 or 70 points behind seventh place, so we fit right in there,” Walker said.

Individually, Walker said he was happy that the weather worked out in the runners’ favor, in that it wasn’t very windy. Although the temperature was in the 30s the morning of the race, Walker said the cold doesn’t affect performance quite as much. He also said running on his home course definitely proved to be an advantage.

Ferro said the results matched her expectations, while also falling a little short. With the way the places worked out in respect to individuals and teams, Ferro was only three spots out from a trip to nationals.

“I raced smart, I enjoyed it … and overall it was a good experience. I finished 12th … which was a lot better than I did the year before, but at the same time I was a little disappointed because I wanted to make it to nationals, but I have two more years,” Ferro said.

Next year, Ferro plans to finish in the top seven at regionals, and make it to nationals by improving her time and staying healthy.

Deaton said the results from regionals exceeded his expectations and was truly the “exclamation point on the season.” He said that in order to get to this point, the teams had to improve tremendously throughout the seaons, which they did.