Angie Berry Nov. 15, 2007

Berry headed to national meet

PELLA—As she prepares for her second trip to the NCAA Division III women’s cross country meet Saturday, Central College’s Angie Berry (sophomore, Norwalk) has been named to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division III all-Central Region team.    

Saturday’s national meet will be staged on the same course that played host to the Central Region meet last weekend, on the St. Olaf College (Minn.) campus in Northfield, Minn.. The 6,000-meter race begins at 11 a.m.

Berry earned all-region honors on the basis of her sixth-place finish at the Central Region meet, turning in a career-best time of 22:23. That moved her into second place on the school’s all-time list of 6,000-meter runners, 5 seconds ahead of Jill Rozendaal’s 2005 time. Berry had placed 13th in last year’s regional.

At last year’s national meet Berry was 37th in 23:59. The time was relatively slow but the course was covered in several inches of mud because of flooding and Berry had the best showing of any freshman in the field, only missing earning all-America distinction by two spots.

Likewise this year, Berry is less concerned with her time than in a top-35 placing and all-America honors, coach David Paulsen said.

“It’s all about where you finish,” he said. “I think she’s got a good shot to be an all-American. It will be a really deep field, but if she runs like she’s been running, she’ll do well. It would be nice to cap off her year as an all-American. She’s been working hard and is very deserving.”

Berry is bidding to become Central’s youngest women’s cross country all-America honoree since the inaugural NCAA Division III meet in 1981, when Dutch freshmen Jackie Schwers and Jan Sedlacek received the distinction as part of the school’s national championship squad. The most recent Dutch runner to earn all-America honors was Beth Cunningham, who placed 20th at the 2004 national meet. Cunningham holds the school 6,000-meter record of 21:53.

Paulsen said Berry’s familiarity with the St. Olaf course is an advantage and it’s a course with which she’s comfortable. Sticking with her race strategy is important.

“She gets a little anxious at the start of the race,” Paulsen said. “That’s a good quality to have but we don’t want her to go out too fast. We’ve identified a few runners she should stay with near the front, which should help. It’s easy to get overanxious but being (at the national meet) last year will definitely help her.”

Many of Berry’s teammates will be supporting her at the race and Paulsen said her efforts will have benefits for the team in the seasons ahead.

“She’s definitely set the bar high for what we want Central cross country to be,” he said. “She’s helping raise our program. Hopefully we can attract more runners like the ones we have in the program now who want to work hard, have a positive attitude and compete every week. Those are three qualities we want in our runners. We’ve got a lot of other runners who made great strides this year as well.”