After a long grueling season, the best of the best have made it to the cross country NCAA Championships.

This season, graduate student Jon Davis will be the only athlete representing the Illini at the NCAA this season after qualifying during the Midwest Regional meet with his runner-up finish on Nov. 12.

The Oakwood native will be advancing to the Championships round for the second year in a row after placing 49th overall with All-American Honors during last season’s NCAA Championship meet. 

The Championships are scheduled to take place on Saturday in Tallahassee, Florida. 

Davis will be heading into this championship meet on a hot streak after scorching his competition during his last two playoff matches. He previously placed third overall during the Men’s 5.2 mile run at the Big Ten Championships, which was just two weeks prior to the regional playoff match.

The Championship round selections also meant that the women’s team’s season came to an end after a long, hard-fought battle this season.

The women were attempting to return to the NCAA Championship round for a third year in a row but were unsuccessful after placing fifth overall at the NCAA Midwest Regional meet. 

Freshman Annalyssa Crain, who placed 44th overall with a time of 21:33.42 during the Women’s 6k race at the regional competition, shared how disappointing this ending was for her team this season, but she believes that the future is looking bright for the program.

“Overall, I’m really happy with the way this season went,” Crain said. “Unfortunately, we won’t be making that trip back down to Florida State, but we’ll have plenty more opportunities later in seasons to come.”

The NCAA Championships are scheduled to start at 9 a.m. and can be seen live on ESPN and the ESPN App on Saturday.

@ArtofRenato

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