University of Illinois Springfield cross country runners Taryn Christy and Wyatt McIntyre earned individual at-large bids to the NCAA Division II National Championships on Monday. The pair will join Blake Jones, who earned an automatic bid over the weekend, at the national meet.
 
Christy will represent the Prairie Stars at nationals for the second straight time, after also running in the 2019 Championships. At the 2019 meet, she earned All-American honors with a 36th-place showing.
 
Christy is a four-time all-GLVC runner in cross country. This year, she finished tenth at the conference meet with a time of 22:07. Christy then came in tenth at the NCAA regional competition, improving her 6,000m time to 21:13.
 
Christy has now qualified for four overall national meets, after also qualifying for the 2020 NCAA Indoor meet and the 2021 Outdoor competition. She earned All-American honors at both of those nationals as well.
 
McIntyre will be making his first appearance in a NCAA Division II national meet. This season, McIntyre captured his second all-GLVC award after finishing seventh at the conference race. He then earned all-region honors with a 16th-place showing at regionals. His time on the 10,000m regional course last weekend was 30:58.
 
McIntyre is in his third season at UIS after transferring from the University of Illinois. Besides his cross country success, he also scored at the GLVC Championships last spring with a third-place finish in the outdoor 5,000m.
 
UIS will set a program record with three runners at the national cross country meet. 2019 was the first time that the Prairie Stars qualified individuals for the race when Jones and Christy advanced.
 
The 2021 NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championships will take place on Nov. 20 in Tampa, Fla.