Berry shattered the school record with a time of 29:19.72 at the Stanford Invitational earlier this season to earn an automatic bid to the regional. The top 12 runners from the race will move on to the NCAA National Championship finals in Des Moines, Iowa, June 6-9.
"Chris has accomplished what he came to Chattanooga to accomplish," UTC Head Coach Bill Gautier said. "He is the only Moc to score in every conference championship from cross country to indoor track and outdoor track."
Berry advanced to the NCAA Cross Country National Championship last fall after earning his second straight all-region honors. He is a three-time Southern Conference champion with titles in the outdoor track 10,000 meters last season and the 5000 meter his sophomore year. As a sophomore, Berry also won the 5000 meter run at the SoCon indoors while placing second in the 3000 meters. In his freshman year, Berry was named the league's cross country Freshman of the Year.
Before the NCAA changed the qualifying criteria for region meets, Chris earned a spot at the Mideast Region for the 5000 meter as a sophomore.
Berry graduated from UTC with his Bachelor's degree in December of 2010 and in May this year with his MBA. He is a two-time USTFCCCA All-Academic and was named to the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District Team. He and teammate Tara Gietema were married last November following the completion of the cross country season.
Berry's time ranks 12th in the East Region. The event is slated to be run Thursday, May 24 at 9 p.m. Results will be available on GoMocs.com following the race.
