The University of Illinois Springfield cross country program crowned its first All-American in program history on Saturday morning in Sacramento, Calif. Taryn Christy earned a top-40 finish at the NCAA Division II National Championships to clinch the honor. Blake Jones also had a program-first by being the first male runner to compete at nationals.
 
Christy repeated her NCAA regional performance by finishing strong to move up in the standings and set a new school record. She ran the first 2.3k in a time of 8:07.5, and was in 57th place. She was still outside the top-50 at the 4.3k mark, having a time of 15:17.7.
 
Christy began to make her move at that point, running the next 800m in a time of 2:43.3, and she was in 43rd place with 900m left. She ran the final portion of the course in a time of 2:55.4, and passed seven more runners for a 36th-place finish. Her final time was 20:56.3, breaking her record from the NCAA regionals by 13 seconds.
 
Jones finished his race with a time of 31:39.1, breaking his previous school record by three seconds. He started strong by being in the top-50 after a mile, and ended up completing the 10,000m course in 108th place out of 267 of the top NCAA Division II Cross Country runners in the nation.
 
The UIS cross country program continued to set new standards in the 2019 season. The Prairie Stars had team-best finishes at both the conference and regional meets, and finished with a record six all-GLVC runners, three all-region performers, and the first two national qualifiers in program history.