When senior Jason Bill competes at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday, his previous experience at the national meet will be invaluable.

Bill, who earned an individual qualifying bid for the national meet after finishing in third place with a time of 30:48 at the Midwest Regional Championships, competed at the NCAAs in 2002 and 2004.

As a freshman in 2002, Bill finished in 155th place, but two years later improved to 76th with a time of 32:22 for the 10K race.

But now as Illinois’ top runner for the last four seasons, Bill is set on earning All-American honors – a distinction awarded to the top 30 finishers.

“Nationals is a race that goes out pretty fast so I just want to get out and put myself in a decent position up near the front, probably not in the front, but just where I’m able to compete for that All-American spot,” Bill said.

This time around, Bill is not going to be overwhelmed by anything, head coach Wendel McRaven said.

“He’s got experience being at the national meet by himself, that’s a key,” McRaven said. “He’s had some experience at the national meet where he’s not necessarily run performances that he was pleased with.”

Now, though, Bill has refined his racing strategy and no longer puts such great expectations on himself – something he used to do as an underclassman. Racing relaxed and being calmer before meets has helped Bill this season, he said.

“He’s learned like any experienced runner what works,” McRaven said. “(Cross country) is a sport where six out of seven days a week it’s got to be the most important thing in your life, but one day a week on race day, it’s actually got to be the least important thing in your life. You’ve got to be able to relax and allow your ability to come out.

“In the past he’s allowed his anxiety to control him sometimes.”

For Bill, the 2006 season has been anything but easy. Suffering from strep throat for much of the early part of the year, Bill wasn’t able to run up to his potential. Bill thought he would be 100 percent for the Big Ten Championships on Oct. 29, but finished in 20th place with a time of 25:13.

Yet, at the regional meet last weekend, Bill turned things around, though the team finished in seventh place and ended its season.

The fact that Bill wasn’t able to run at top strength could have been a blessing in disguise, McRaven said.

“Sometimes forced rest and forced moderation for distance runners is not a bad thing,” McRaven said. “Other times, you leave guys up to their own devices and sometimes they will run themselves into the ground and he’s done that before.”

“All it did was force him to take some down time and recover and absorb some of the hard training we had done previously. And now I think he’s reaping the benefits of that.”

To earn All-American honors Bill must finish in the top 30 runners on Monday at 12:15 p.m at the Lavern Gibson Championship Course at the Wabash Family Sports Complex.

It’s within reach, but the key will be for Bill to race the way he did at regionals.

If Bill does that, McRaven thinks he will walk away an All-American.

“(Jason) needs to run the first 5K where he’s feeling good, he’s feeling comfortable, but still within the top 50 to 60 (runners) in the race and then finish like he did at regionals.” McRaven said. “At regionals he was 12 seconds behind the leader at 3K and then a little bit closer at 6K, and then by 8K he was in the lead.”

Although Bill said it will be disappointing if he doesn’t finish in the top 30, he is just grateful he has one last chance to race in an Illinois uniform, which wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t automatically qualify for Monday’s race.

“I’m just looking forward to racing again and getting one more shot at it,” Bill said. “I’m pretty excited.”