UIS women's cross country senior Madelyn Miller-Ross will make her first appearance at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships after an outstanding performance at the Midwest Regional over the weekend.

Miller-Ross finished 10th out of 198 runners in the regional field, crossing the 6K course in 21:16. Ahead of her were five athletes from regional champion Grand Valley State, and one each from Hillsdale, Walsh, Cedarville, and Lewis. While the automatically qualifying teams included GVSU, Cedarville, and Lewis, it was announced Monday afternoon that Walsh earned a bid as well. This selection made Miller-Ross the second finisher in the field not competing as part of a qualifying team.

This will be the senior from East Moline's first NCAA DII Cross Country Championship, though she brings a wealth of national competition experience from track and field, including last year's indoor championship where she earned All-American honors for the first time. She is also the first Prairie Stars cross country athlete to qualify for nationals since Taryn Christy in 2021, and just the second athlete in program history to do so.

The NCAA DII Cross Country Championships will take place Saturday, Nov. 22, at the Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course, hosted at Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, Wis. The women's 6K race is set to being at 11:00 a.m. A live webcast of the championship races and award ceremonies will be available on NCAA.com.